Future of Change
by Harkon
Summary: Surviving the death of one world wasn't as impossible as they thought, living on the new one might be. Sequel to Future of Ruin
1. Chapter 1

Well now,

Howdy everyone, its been a while since we've had a good look at this particular version of Harry and Hermione hasn't it? I promised I had a sequel in mind, and I did then and still do. Real life up to this point has prevented me from working on it. If you all have read my other story, A Different War, you'd know why, my home was flooded in June, day before my birthday actually, and my family and I had to pretty much start over with the clothes on our back. But I'm about back on my feet now, and finally feel that stirring, that desire to write tales and tell stories, so here we are.

I won't hold you all up any longer, lets get things started.

Prologue: Boring is Overrated

Its always slow in the beginning. Those first few heart beats, those first couple of breaths. The release on the fog that blanketed my mind. I opened my eyes, blinking away the blurriness and took my first deep breath in several decades. It was freezing, ice crystals had formed on my eyelashes. I sat up stiffly, yawning from such a long rest and spoke in a cracked voice.

"Activate warming charms please." I heard a faint chime echoing and instantly felt the room around me begin to warm. I rubbed my arms with my hands, frowning as the metallic one was still cold. Next to me, a beautiful, curly haired brunette stirred. She stretched like a cat and blinked up owlishly at me. I smiled down at her. "We're here."

The change was nearly instant. I laughed as she sat bolt up in our bed, the sheet pooling in her naked lap. Mirth danced in my eyes at seeing that old excitement, and old thirst for knowledge and learning. She climbed over top of me, heading for a small bathroom located in our quarters aboard the ship. He cast a look at me over her shoulder and grinned. "What are you waiting for Mr. Potter? We have lots to do." I grinned and stood up before following her inside.

Hermione's tender care did more to wake me up and any hot shower ever could, both us us reentered out room, hair damp with silly grins plastered on our faces, gods above I loved this woman. We made out way through the ship, periodically checking that our samples of plant and animal life were still properly in stasis. Our human cargo was progressing nicely. A small trickle of knowledge and power had been dripping into them all at a snail's pace over the last few hundred years, and as we made our final approach, they were all nearly ready.

Hermione and I had been waking up in twenty year intervals. We'd spend a year awake on the ship, making sure everything was in proper order and working fine, before returning to rest. The stasis charms, carefully crafted over the course of ten years, prevented any form of noticeable aging. Truth be told the charms were really for the passengers, I wasn't entirely convinced Hermione and I aged properly anymore.

We sat down in the pilot seats, a funny name considered ninety nine percent of the ships features were designed to run automatically. With the flick of a few rune powered switches, the blank curved wall in front of us lit up with an amazing view of space. A reddish orange hue painted the inside of the cockpit, the star of this particular system was smaller than our own, newer, with more power and energy. As we approached this younger solar system, our ship had taken detailed photos of the planets and moons, as many as it could based off of our course. A small scale replica was displayed before us. Seven planets, three rocky worlds and four gas giants. The first world was so close to the sun it leeched a vapor trail of debris, creating a sort of odd wobbly ring. The next two were both located in the Goldilocks zone, practically next door neighbors on the cosmic scale. The second one would mark our home, I felt my breath catch in my throat at the sight of it. Massive chunks of land, covered in interesting greens with red spots near their center, were divided by massive elongated oceans, almost looking like big giant rivers from our view. The opposite side of the planet, where night would be, was covered almost entirely in water, with small islands dotting it throughout. I say small, but this world was eight percent larger than Earth, so I imagined everything would be a bit bigger than it seemed.

Two moons orbited the planet, one close and another farther away, being pulled out by our new world's 'sister planet.' I paid the gas giants little mind, they were so far off you'd need a powerful telescope to even catch a glimpse of them.

"Its beautiful." I smiled and looked over at her, like usual, she wasn't wrong. I flipped a few more switches, checking on the progress of our human cargo.

"Looks like they'll be ready to wake up in about a year's time, well, an Earth year anyway. You couldn't have timed that better Mione."

She grinned wolfishly. "I wanted to make sure we had time to look for a safe place to start a colony, we know nothing about this world, other than it obviously can support life. This will give us a chance to explore, look for the best place to set up shop so to speak."

I laughed, "I think you just wanted all this newness to yourself for a while, a chance to learn things before anyone else."

A pink tinge touched her cheeks. "No, if that was true, you'd still be sleeping." I laughed again and shook my head.

"Let's check on our little landing boat, It'll be a few hours still before he can set the ship in a stable orbit around the planet. What are we going to call it?"

A crease formed between her eyes as she frowned in concentration. "I thought about naming it Fae, if you thought that was alright."

I grinned at her. "I Think that will do just fine."

My mind briefly cast back to Earth, a floating dead rock at this point. It hadn't been in good shape when we left, and that was centuries ago. I shook myself out of the memories, it wouldn't happen this time.

The two of us disembarked from the head of the ship and headed in the opposite direction. The initial landing ship was an ugly thing, boxy and a boorish yellow color. But it had its purpose. If everything went according to plan, the vehicle would expand into a full size, albeit small house. And of course with a little elbow grease and the liberal application of expansion charms, anything was possible.

We went through the entire landing procedure twice, a process that alone takes nearly four hours. I loved Hermione, I truly did, but sometimes I've found her to be a bit… extra thorough. At any rate by the time we were finished, we'd gotten close enough to Fae's surface to set a stable orbit. The first view of the surface this close up was mind boggling.

It looked like huge mountain ranges, with a massive ancient jungle growing along the spines. Radically different weather systems roared on either side. Something akin to a sand storm to the south, and a tsunami formed to the north of the massive mountain range. Long swirling oceans stretched the entire surface of the world, with many islands and isle chains dotted throughout. We were still to far away to see anything like distinct plant and animal life, but the whole world looked alive. The massive mountain range seemed to set on a plateau of sorts that ran across the surface of the world like a bad stitch. The forest that covered it was a darker green than any other plants we could see.

The world looked held together with magic, a crazy grin stretched across my features. I looked at Hermione. "Do you see this insanity?" I laughed softly, I felt an old curiosity itching at my blood, exploration of the unknown. I could see it on Hermione's face. She was dying to get down there.

"Magic is _much_ stronger here than back home. Its this world's life blood more than anything else. The double moons have also protected it, and I'm sure done some crazy things as well. Imagine harvesting wolfs bane's under the effect of a double full moon?" A grin split her features.

"What could live on a world this? What does live on a world like this? Can you imagine?"

"I could, but I think I'd rather go have a look for myself." She stood and stretched again before heading out the door. She turned to look at me. "Come one, we've got to go pack, lots to do Mr. Potter."

I shouldn't have been surprised. Laughing, I stood up and left, heading off to pack up the few things that weren't already in the landing ship.

2.

I felt a bolt of nervousness reach in and tickle my bones. My heart was pumping, really hammering home like I was in a fight. I could feel the manic grin stretching my features, crinkling the scars across my cheek. I glanced left at the crazy beautiful, time traveling planet hopping woman next to me and laughed, I couldn't help it.

She quirked an eyebrow and smiled at me. "Something funny Mr. Potter?"

I kept laughing for a moment, flipping a few of the switches and feeling the magical engine hum beneath me. "Just our lives. Crazy doesn't even begin to cover it."

She laughed a little too at that. "As long as I don't wake up in a padded room every time I open my eyes, I consider it a good day."

My laughter softened into a smile. "I'd come visit, hell maybe we could get adjoining rooms?" The controls hummed and buzzed, coming alive for the first time in several decades. We'd test flown the craft several times back on earth, it wasn't the prettiest thing, basically an angular box with a coned nose. Thanks to a bit of magic under the hood it purred like a kitten though. Hermione finished her part of the start up, still laughing at me, and before I realized it the little landing ship was hovering patiently in place. 'Mione had an interesting idea on how to get our little landing vehicle out of the main ship. Short distance portkeys.

The station had large hanger doors that could be opened, when we brought everyone else down in a few months we'd use those doors to move most of everything outside. In the mean time our landing ship would work as a short distance portkey, taking us from within the ship to directly outside of it, in open space. The portkey wasn't blind exactly, but it didn't have a set destination, only distance. In a nut shell we pointed the ship toward our new home and crossed our fingers. I saw Hermione squeeze her eyes shut at the last minute before the strangest shifting feeling came over me. Riding in a giant portkey wasn't anything like holding one for the trip. In no time at all we reappeared outside of our craft, barely bobbing from the trip.

"You can open your eyes now." I heard her gasp from the sight of Fae. Viewing it over screens and photos is all well and good, but it simply cant capture the craziness of the world like your own eyes can. The Swirling storm formations grew closer and in higher detail as we approached the planet, creating intricate swirling patterns, similar to Earth's but more… primal in appearance. A huge grin had split my face some time ago, and didn't seem like it was going anywhere soon.

I could see the glow from us breaking through the atmosphere, a force, ancient and primal slammed into me at nearly the same time. It felt like a massive ward, like the magic saturating the planet had formed some massive primordial shield. The presence swam around us both, invisible to the naked eye, but being able to feel it, intimately. After a few moments the energy began flowing around us properly, almost like a blanket.

It lasted nearly a minute as we broke through the upper most layer of the atmosphere. I glanced At Hermione, at the speed we were traveling it felt like we passed through it quickly, but it had to be several miles thick. "What the hell was the that?" It was hard to hear myself speak, the ship was built for this, but the ride was still bumpy and jarring.

"I haven't the fainest, but it was exciting, wasn't it?" I just chuckled and activated the manual settings, wrestling control away from the autopilot. The friction and heat had dissipated now, and we'd just pierced the clouds in a whoosh of swirling mist. My breath caught in my throat.

We'd planned our landing spot from the ship. We were going to touch down in a patch of green, a spot close to the edge of that massive twisting mountain range. We'd hoped the green was something of a clearing, perhaps a grassy area to set up a base camp. To say that we were wrong was an understatement.

At first I thought it was the ground, covered in some sort of low growing ferns, but it only took me a moment to see that it was actually tree tops. Tall skinny trees, many of them nearly a hundred feet tall, had created an overlapping canopy, that from space resembled a grassland. I spotted something small and white jumping across the tops of these strange trees. I pointed it out to Hermione just as it disappeared under a flap of leaves.

I slowed the ship down so we could take a real good look. The trees weren't particularly close together, and were extremely skinny. From a distance you could almost mistake them for palm trees. The leafy green tops spread out sort of like an umbrella, and were massive in comparison to the trunks. These sprouts, for a lack of a better word, interwove with each other, probably providing support to the trunks. The tops were so much larger than the trunks I'd imagine they'd fall over eventually without the support from the other trees. We began flying low over this strange forest, every once in a while catching sight of one of those strange hoping creatures. A small gap in the trees revealed orange bark with brown splotches. We'd have to land to get a better look. The pair of us started looking for a clearing, slowly meandering our way toward the crazy 'wall' that formed to create that elevated mountain range. From here it looked like a strange green wall. If you looked toward the top you could just see the jagged tops, most of them poking straight through the clouds.

I'd been looking at that mountain for a few moments, when a horrendous sense of dread filled every fiber of my being. My breath shortened and began coming a ragged gasps, a cold sweat broke out over most of my body and I felt instantly clammy. Fear crept up my spine and me teeth began to chatter. I looked at Hermione in bewilderment, and saw the same thing had happened to her. I looked forward again, my flesh hand suddenly slick with sweat and nearly screamed at the sight out of the window.

A wall of flame and smoke, easily large enough to engulf our entire ship five times over, was rushing toward us. A bellowing roar, like the laughter of demons made the landing craft vibrate in its frame.

"Ha-Har-" Hermione was desperately trying to get my attention, but I was completely focused on the hell storm in front of us. My human hand shook uncontrollably, to the point I couldn't even hold the yoke properly. My metal hand was still firm, and listening much better to the incoherent screaming my brain was doing than any other part of me. With a jerk so unsteady that we nearly crashed right there, I managed to get us out of the path of the hell fire. One of the blunt and square wings grazed the canopy as the behemoth came screaming passed us and I got an actual good look at it. Long and thick, with the massive squat legs of some monstrous vulture. It almost looked like a horrendously bloated worm in the sky. Two wings, obscured by the billowing smoke, stretched out in hundreds of feet in both directions. They were leathery, with small tufts of quills dotted throughout. Its skin seemed fleshly and molten, no scales or hair of any kind. Its head, or what I assumed was its head, was nothing but a massive opening that had smoke and fire trailing out of the opening. Now that I wasn't lined up with it that sense of dread had vanished entirely. I watched the thing warily as it continued on its path, waiting to see if it would turn around and try again. Hermione tapped me on the shoulders and pointed off in front of the beast.

Something blue was perched in top of the canopy. It was bigger than those strange white jumping creatures we'd seen. Whatever it was didn't seem to even notice the huge sky beast traveling in its general direction. The blue creature spread its own wings, I could make out four of them, but they seemed transparent and it was hard to tell, and jumped upward, using the top of the canopy as a sort of spring board.

We watched in morbid fascination until it rose into the air, and moved into the path of the flying fire. It froze in midair, wings beating madly as it seemed to struggle with itself, fighting to stay airborne, but paralyzed with fear at the same time. The winged fire simply kept on its path, completely engulfing the smaller being without even slowing. It turned then, slowly and surprisingly graceful considering what it was, and began meandering toward that raised mountain ridge.

My heart was still beating hard in my chest, I didn't feel that rush of fear anymore, but my body was still calming down. I looked at Hermione and noticed a few tears had escaped her eyes. I brushed them away with a thumb. "You okay? I don't know about you, but I think I might have actually had a heart attack." She gave a watery chuckle.

"We've been here for five minutes, and have already been nearly eaten by a flying dragon dementor monster. Must be Tuesday." I laughed at that, more to help steady my nerves than anything else.

"Did you feel the _power_ coming off that thing? I suppose we can definitely consider it a magical creature, Nothing that big could ever actually fly without it. Not even considering the fire it was bellowing out."

"I wonder if its like that all the time? Or maybe just when its hunting, it has feet, so we can assume it lands and must have some sort of nest or den-"

I placed my hand over hers and smiled. "Breath, we'll track down and study that thing later, lets find a place to land first, before something else tries to kill us." She grinned sheepishly as we continued looking, this time staying closer to the trees, and looking up as often as we looked down.

3.

We looked for nearly an hour before finding a suitable spot to land. We'd had to travel much farther that we thought, ending up within a few miles of the strange rock wall. We'd flown close by earlier, mostly to get a good look, and confirm what we were looking at was what we thought. It was extremely steep, would be difficult and dangerous to climb even with equipment. After rising several hundred feet at that steep incline, it leveled out slightly for nearly half a mile before the mountains began to rise again. The structure ran across the entire planet, something akin to a crooked belt that didn't quite touch on either end, and nearly bisected the planet in half, causing extreme weather differences on either side. The raised plateau was several hundred miles across. As we began to touch down in our clearing, I sent a silent prayer skyward that the smoking behemoth stayed mostly to those strange mountains.

The closer we got to that mountain range the thinner these trees became, and the clearing we found was large enough to comfortably fit our landing ship inside and give us some room to set up camp. The constant subtle vibration of the ship ceased as we touched down and shut off the ship. It took only moments, with it being powered by magic it took little more than the press of a button to completely cut power. We sat together in the silence of the cabin, little more than lights and life support running at this rate. Hermione had pulled up a screen, showing what the air outside was like.

"Close to Earth's, Seventy percent Nitrogen, twenty nine percent oxygen. The rest our trace elements." I grinned, she was in library mode.

"Time to pop the hatch love, I know you want out there as badly as I do." She worried her brow and frowned slightly, biting her lip.

"What about germs, pathogens that we're not used to?"

I shrugged. "We were all scrubbed clean as we got on the ship, you know magic keeps most mundane germs out. We'll just have to deal with it if someone gets a space cold." Hermione rolled her eyes at me but unstrapped and headed for the door anyway.

I could hear her muttering under her breath, something about a recklessness, as she approached the door. Hermione punched in the buttons needed to unlock the door, and stopped short with her hand on the handle, suddenly looking nervous.

I placed a hand on her shoulder. "Its now or never, don't you want to be the first human to step onto the alien soil of another world?" That little prodding was all it took. She turned the latch, and threw open the door with near reckless abandon.

The air that rushed inside to greet us was the cleanest I'd smelled in many of my lifetimes. The heat coming in was a little unexpected, it was a much warmer world than our original home, but not unwelcome. The sound is what really got to me though.

Chirps, chittering, rustling. The sounds of a forest, a living forest, were everywhere. We'd already seen signs of animal life, and the plant life was clearly abundant. But to hear this forest, a forest never heard by human ears… there was true magic here.

Hermione stepped outside, making a slight noise of surprise as her feet touched the ground. I followed closely behind and quickly discovered what had surprised her. At first glance the ground looked covered in a light brown dirt, with random scrubs and fern looking things dotted around. I could feel the ground give slightly beneath me, a sponginess, and I realized it was some sort of plant. It seemed almost like moss. It moved and breathed very subtly, barely noticeable unless you looked for it. I ran my hand across the top, feeling the soft, almost fleshy tendrils that tangled together to make this 'floor.' It looked and saw we'd landed on a large patch of it. There were bare spots, and areas of other vegetation, but this brown, tangly moss stuff was everywhere.

"Interesting. Doesn't seem to be hurting any of the other plants around."

"We wouldn't know what they look like sick Harry. These tree like constructs might normally be purple for all we know." She had me there.

"Well, at least it doesn't have teeth, or belch huge walls of fire." A little tickle of unease went through me at the memory of that… what ever the hell it was.

I stood and looked to Hermione. Her curiosity was in full bloom, and looked nearly ready to burst. She was looking everywhere at once, trying to see, hear, and smell everything at the same time. I walked over and placed and arm around her waist, resting my hand on her hip.

"We've got the rest of our lives to explore every inch of it." She turned suddenly and kissed me full on the lips. I felt a grin forming and picked her up, spinning her around on the spot. She squealed and swatted me. After dropping her gently to her feet I headed back toward the ship.

"Come on now, lets get camp set up, then we can do a bit of exploring." I didn't have to look to know she'd was following quick behind. A smile stretched my face, life was looking up.

We had a set of tents that we'd brought with us, similar to wizarding tents in the old world, these were far more robust. Not far from where we'd set down the ship, Hermione and I found a patch of bare ground big enough to set up our tent. It didn't take long to get up, looking like a standard four person tent on the outside, on the inside it had a small kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, with a little hub room that doubled as a living room. We probably wouldn't be spending much time in the tent anyway. The two of us worked in quiet companionship, and soon had a small base of operations of sorts.

I sighed and plopped down into a fold out chair I had stuck at the mouth of the tent. A strange orange and green bug buzzed passed my head. It looked something like a large mosquito with an extra set of wings. It landed on my metal hand and began crawling around, much quicker than I thought it would. I held my hand up, looking at the little beast. It had what looked like a duel proboscis, and was tapping at the metal, attempting to bite me.

"Fascinating." I jumped, I'd been paying too much attention to the bug, and not enough to Hermione. She had snuck up next to me and was peering over at the insect, staring intently. "Capture it Harry, I want to study it. Besides, we should check and see what kind of diseases it might carry. Our biology might be different enough from the natural evolutionary path this planet took that any viruses simply wouldn't know what to do with us."

I nodded, following along with her logic well enough, while I conjured a glass jar and shook the offending insect into it. I snapped the lid into place and watched as it began tapping on the glass. Looking for a way out. I drilled a few micro holes into the jar for air and placed an unbreakable charm on it before handing it over to Hermione. She grinned at the little bug, something a tad unsettling in that smile.

"Thank you Harry." I watched as she practically skipped back off into the tent. That woman scared me sometimes. It didn't take long for her to come back out, sans bug. "Come on then, you can be lazy later, We're in the middle of an alien forest, hundreds of light years away from Earth. Let's poke around and see what kind of trouble we can get in to."

I've been a bad influence on her, I know I have. I stood and stretched, wiping away the sweat that had formed on my brow, and shouldered a small pack I'd kept at my side. The two of us set tracking charms to the tents and the drop ship, and tied them to my metal hand. Now I'd know exactly where they were, no matter how far we walked.

I looked down at Hermione and smiled, stretching out my human hand. She took it and the two of us were off into the unknown.

A/N:

Well there's chapter one, out of the way. I'm going to try to get something out every few weeks for now, so keep your eyes peeled. For a few story relevant notes. Our wonder couple were pretty damn powerful near the end of the Future of Ruin, and they still are. I want everyone to keep in mind, channeling that kind of power 24/7 is simply impossible, even with what these two had done to each other. They'd burn out eventually and die. It also takes intense concentration to bring to the surface and then wield, they're a bit better off what with absorbing all the energy from the ward stone, but don't expect them to go dropping mountains on anything that tries to eat them.

Also, keep in mind that magic is naturally stronger on Fae than it is on Earth, that means Every magical creature is naturally stronger than things you'd find on Earth. So crazy powerful monsters are way more common. Basically I gave Harry a power boost, in turn everything must get tougher to not make it too easy on him. You lot have a good day.

-Harkon


	2. A whole new world

Hello everyone, thank you to the few reviewers I managed to pull in for the first chapter, here's hoping I can keeping entertaining you people, and get this insane idea of an immortal, planet hopping Potter out of my head.

I won't keep you reading pointless notes, on with the show.

Chapter 2: The Start of Something Different

The trees were singing. A breeze was blowing through this alien forest, and the trees were singing. I closed my eyes, feeling the warm summery breeze slide across my face. Those huge leafy tops were rubbing against one another, creating the sound of a thousand wind chimes are working in harmony. It wasn't a loud jarring sound, quite the opposite in fact, it made me want to take a nap.

I cracked a smile and peered through half lidded eyes at Hermione, she had the most adorable awe struck expression on her face. "This is, this is just wow Harry..." I stepped up next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into me and I could almost feel her quivering with excitement. Always filled with questions, this one.

"I heard stories about places on Earth where the trees would sing, Avalon, Atlantis, but I never got to see it for myself, I was always busy chasing that evil tosser from one side of the globe to another." There wasn't any bitterness in my voice, _He'd_ been imprisoned with the Fae for several centuries now. If the once proud dark lord could even remember his own name, if he even still existed, he wasn't worth thinking about anymore.

"Do you think its like this everywhere?"

I looked down at her, a small smile slipping onto my face. "What do you mean Mione?"

"This whole world seems to thrum with magic, its everywhere. Remember those soil samples I took yesterday? Its practically alive with magic. The _dirt_ here is magical Harry." I laughed at the flummoxed sound in her voice.

"Yes, I imagine this world will be full of similar surprises." I looked up toward those rustling umbrella like leaves and narrowed my eyes. "Our visitor is back."

We'd only been on Fae for three days, well, three Fae days. I hadn't been watching the clock, but the days here seemed longer than on Earth, with a sunrise and sunset that lasted nearly three hours. The axis of the planet must be… strange. Yesterday Hermione had noticed some pale creatures trailing us from the tree tops. They never got close enough for us to get a proper look at, but they reminded me of frogs, with there long bent rear legs. They hadn't attacked us, if anything they seemed simply curious, cautiously so. I suppose they'd never seen something quite so strange as Hermione and I before.

"I wish we could coax one of them down, I'd love to get an up close look." We'd never seen one on the ground, Hermione figured they lived in the trees, I was inclined to agree with her, she was usually right anyway.

They followed us to the edge of the clearing we'd made camp in but never left the trees. I shrugged, they'd come say hello when they felt like it. Right this minute I was more interested in a bush I'd spied off to our left. We'd run across dozens of different plants as we made an ever wider circle around our base camp. Hermione had furiously been cataloging everything she saw, using magic to snap something of a photograph before imprinting it in a notebook she'd been carrying since we landed. Just a short sentence or two along with the photograph. We could live another thousand years and I think she'd still be recording things.

The reason I found the bush so interesting was that _this_ one seemed to have some sort of fruit hanging from it purple and blue leaves. She made an "oooh" sound and trotted off toward it, leaving me to catch up, laughing.

"The little growths are colored like the leaves, but like at this craziness." I bent down as we got closer, the fruit in question was shaped like a bone, not a real bone, but a facsimile of the shape, like a dog's chew toy. Blue and purple swirled and twisted across the surface, blending at the tops and bottoms, and causing the thinner middle bit to be striped. The stripes were moving subtly, like as if in a breeze. I reached out and plucked one.

Hermione gasped. "Be careful, metal hand only for now please!" I chuckled and brought it up to my eyes and smelled it. Kinda like strawberries and lemons, with a hint of mint. I reached out with my magic and felt the fruit. It practically glowed like a magical artifact. It had an aura of health and rejuvenation about it. I took a bite.

"Harry!" Hermione smacked me on the back of the head, trying to dislodge the fruit, but I held on stubbornly. It was delicious. I closed my eyes and took another bite, feeling the purple swirly juice dribble down my chin.

"Mione, you've got to try this." She looked at me like I'd grown another head.

"Harry, you just ate alien fruit."

"Yeah, I know that, like I said, you should try it."

"You… you're impossible, you know that? I swear, why I haven't died of a heart attack by now I'll never know..." She took the fruit from my hands and eyed it skeptically.

"Feel the fruit with your magic, that's why I knew it was safe to eat." She looked at me again, less sure of herself. "Its second nature to me to reach out and touch things with my magic, you still concentrate on doing it, like its not already a part of you." I smiled at her, I put in a good decade's worth of work getting her to loosen up some and trust her natural instincts, but she still loved taking an academic approach to life. Instead of just feeling the intent of the plant, she wanted to study it, dissect it, and catalog everything. There'd be plenty of time for that later, right now I just wanted her to _feel_ it.

Her eyes became half lidded in the way they always did when she was concentrating on something. Only about a second passed before she felt it too, and a wane smile crossed her features. "I should have known that even you weren't that reckless."

She brought the fruit to bear and took a bite, moaning as she really tasted it for the first time.

"My gods that's amazing!" I grinned at her and plucked another fruit, taking a bite. The taste was almost euphoric, which made me a tad wary, I suspected someone could make some fine alcohol from this stuff. I stuck one more into my pack for later and snagged Hermione, she was chewing and furiously scribbling notes at the same time. With the tap of her finger she set the image she'd sketched of the fruit dancing, mimicking the swirling pattern of the stripes.

The two of us walked for several more hours, gushing with excitement over every new discovery. Several different fruits grew in patches along the floor of this alien forest. Periwinkle berries that tasted like sunset, strange gourds that looked like inflated bananas covered in feelers. Hermione wasn't up to trying that one. Bit like chewy potatoes.

The sky slowly darkened over head, signaling the end of this strange and wondrous day. We decided to pitch a simple camp on the edge of a field. We could both see the distant plateau, and the mountain range that rested on top of it. It reached up and scraped the clouds, tearing through them in places. If I squinted I swore I could see the occasional bloom of fire, or a belch of smoke. Probably just my imagination.

The field before us had tall grass with broad blades, they weren't straight green, but had a blue tinge that made them shimmer in the dying sunlight. I pulled out an extra large sleeping back for the two of us to share, along with two tarps. One tarp I spread out beneath our sleeping bag, the other I hung above us, sticking it in place with a bit of magic to four different trees. I few more flicks of my hands and I set some basic avoidance wards around our little camp. It should help to keep any unwanted critters out and away.

Hermione had built a fire off to the side of our make shift tent. The dried 'bark' that flaked off of the singing trees caught fast and burned bright, allowing for a quick fire; plenty hot enough to heat up a tea kettle with.

The two of us watched in dying sunlight, and listened to the sounds of the trees singing. The last rays of light flickered and vanished over the mountain range. Night had fallen. The world stilled and quieted around us, the strange, yet familiar, sounds of this alien forest died away.

We sat, watched, and waited, any second now…

Yes, there they were! All across the clearing within the forest, bio luminescent rods rose slowly out of the ground. They swayed in a gentle breeze, being nearly nine foot long, it was a strange sight to say the least. The rods glowed a swirling blue green color, they shivered in the breeze and then seemed to move with more purpose, almost as if they were scanning the surrounding area. One by one they stood up. A massive four legged creature stood up and shook the dirt from its back. Their legs and body shape resembled a giraffe, but with the same swirling blue color. A long thick neck was topped with a quilled, reptilian head. Two sets of us, stacked on top of each other, blinked and opened, the rod that protruded from their heads lowered one by one, lying flat against their necks and backs. A haunting sound, like whale song, escaped several of them, some basic form of communication.

We watched as several larger members of the strange species lumbered over to a group of younger rodlings. Man Mione hated that name but I think it suits them. They seemed to be some sort of herd, or family, as certain children in the group gravitated toward certain individual adults. I shook my head, grinning at the sight.

"They're beautiful creatures."

I glanced sideways at Hermione. "Yes, to say the least. I'm amazed at how they manage to bury themselves every night just before sunrise. I wonder what they're hiding from?" Hermione and I had been traipsing through these woods for several days now and hadn't encountered any large predators, other than that flying monstrosity that nearly ate us when we landed.

"I don't know, I suppose they could be hiding from those flying beasts, but we haven't seen one since we got here."

"Possible I suppose, we haven't been here too long, hard to tell what we'll-" I was cut off by the sound of toppling trees. We could hear them singing as they fell, the song somehow mournful as it crashed to the earth. The trees were falling someways off, across the clearing full of rodlings. I felt my muscles tense, the trunks of these trees were flexible but extremely strong; whatever was knocking them down had to be powerful.

"What was that?" Hermione was crouched next to me, a bit of magic crackling in her eyes.

I felt a grin split my features. "I think we're about to find out."

The crashing about continued for some minutes, growing steadily louder with every passing moment. One of the rodlings, positioned on the opposite edge of the clearing, let out a deep honking sound, the rod on its head standing straight up. It lumbered off with an awkward run, honking constantly at the others. The creatures must not have the best hearing, to be so late to sound the alarm.

What burst through the trees made my blood run cold. As tall as the rodlings, and nearly twice as broad, the beast scuttled forward on six crab like legs as thick as tree trunks. Its skin was flesh colored, with patches of fur running down either side of its back. The head faced forward, and had a mass of wriggling tentacles for a mouth, a double set of black eyes scowled above them. Something tickled at my memory of the sight, something the fae girl had told me.

They didn't come here. I'm starting to see why, our new home is strange and beautiful, but it had its deadly side.

"Oh my." I glanced sideways at Hermione, her hands were balled into fists, her fingers white. I reached out and grabbed the hand, clasping her fingers with my own, feeling her relax.

"I know, looks a bit familiar doesn't it? But its just an animal Mione." The beast charged toward one of the young, but an older rodling stepped up and used its name sake like a mace, swinging its head around in a strange whipping motion, almost as if the bones in its neck disappeared for a moment. It smashed into the beasts head, sending it rolling sideways. The thing let loose a warbled grinding sound, a roar of some kind I suppose, before clawing itself back onto those crab like legs.

By then, more adult rodlings had surrounded it, creating a wall with their bodies separating the creature from their young. It hissed, a vent of steam leaking from its mouth, but they wouldn't back down. More of them became ready for combat, their necks becoming almost rubber like as they whipped their heads around, using the rods like bats, and striking the beast over and over again. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I heard Hermione snort from next to me and I looked over, catching her trying not to laugh.

"Man magic is a funny thing some times isn't it?" She shook her head, trying to laugh and be quiet at the same time.

"I guess you get some… truly unique defensive measures when its literally weaved into everything like it is here." I was just happy her mild panic attack was over.

We sat and watched as the beast continued to attack, trying to get at the rodlings' heads of bodies, but the natural batons that grew from the crown of their heads worked wonders to keep it at bay. I took a closer look at the creature, noticed the shaggy patches of fur, the desperation of the attack, and the scars that covered its body. It was old, probably nearing the end of its life. Having never seen such a creature before, I couldn't honestly tell you what a young one would look like compared to an old one, but some things, like hunger and weakness, were universal.

One of the larger rodlings gave it a particularly good smack, sending it backward to land in a crashed heap. The beast let loose another grinding sound from it tentacled mouth before turning away from its would be prey and storming off, right toward us.

I heard Hermione gasp from next to me, suddenly it was back to not being funny anymore. Her grip on my hand tightened. We watched as it drew closer, an air of dejection about it. It approached the ward line, and got two pincher like legs inside before pausing. We'd had a few critters com sniffing around camp, but they never managed to cross the ward line before. This guy was bigger, possibly more magic resistant, seeing as how it was a predator of some variety. Its black eyes turned glassy and it stilled completely for a moment.

I just started to relax when it blinked, shook its head, and stepped fully into our warded area. It stilled once more, eyes narrowing. Those feelers on its face lifted and wriggled out in front of it, pointing directly at us. It snarled a grinding screech and charged. Thousands of lifetimes worth of battle kicked in and I gave Hermione a swift swat on the ass to shake her out of her daze. She shrieked in surprise but it got that big beautiful brain of hers working and she dived sideways out of the way, just as I did on in the opposite direction. It came barreling through our position, its feelers separating into two bunches, one following each of us.

I cursed as it turned and immediately took off after Hermione. I fired a blast of pure magical force at its back. The beast stumbled, instead of losing its balance and falling like I planned. It didn't even pause, just continued hounding her.

Hermione wasn't one to cower though, She got a cluster of trees between her and the monster and fired off a stream of curses at its head. Cutting curses that would have cleaved the leg off a giant back home merely cut the creature, allowing an ooze of azure blood to leak out. The beast shook off the superficial wounds and snarled again, moving around the trees. I caught up and blasted its back with balls of fire and ice, I conjured a whip flame and lashed at its legs, bolts of pure destructive viridian lanced from my hands, tearing bit of flesh off the beast's back. Hermione had conjured spears and knives, sending them spinning through the air at the monster's head. One blade got lodged in an eye, but the rest clattered off its fleshy head.

This wasn't working, we had to crank up the heat a bit. "Hermione! This thing isn't giving up!" It turned away from her for a moment and swiped at me with a pincer. I ducked out of the way, and let a trickle of primordial magic enter my system. My eyes glowed green, and power I hadn't used outside of training in centuries roared to life. It wouldn't take much I reminded myself, just needed to scare it off.

Across from the beast, I saw a spark of honey colored light as Hermione let out her true potential. What once felt like a candle expanded with the force of a small star. She started lobbing balls of pure energy at the monster, magic so old it didn't have words of gestures to go with it, just pure will power. I joined her, noticing with satisfaction that my attacks were finally bothering the beast now.

Within a few moments it was over, the monster was beaten into submission, and soon gave up trying to eat Hermione. I let the power fade, sleeping once more as I watched it scurry off and over the ward line. It paused again then, shaking is molten and injured head before heading deeper into the forest of singing trees. I reminded myself then that I was trying to scare off a particularly ferocious animal, not fighting demons. I suppose thriving on such a magical world added in a certain bit of natural resistance. Living here was going to be exciting.

With the beast gone I made my way toward Hermione. She was breathing hard, more from adrenaline than from actually being tired. The honey colored light was just fading from her eyes as I came up to her. "Alright love? That thing wasn't interested in taking no for an answer." I wrapped an arm around her waist as she let out a breathless laugh.

"I almost feel bad for it, but id rather not end up a snack after less than a week of being here." She grinned and looked up at me. "Well, not by that thing anyway."

I grinned right back and kissed her square on the lips. "What a wonderful idea, but lets tighten up security a bit first, yeah?"

She laughed again. "Yeah, we're definitely doing that first."

2.

We spent several more days in th forest, just familiarizing ourselves with the area. Those strange frog like creatures continued to follow us when we were under the cover of trees. Sometimes when the sun was at its highest, we could hear them chirping to each other. It sounded a lot like a language to me, very distint patterns emerged if one listened close enough.

"I think we should make out way back to base camp. Its been days now, want to make sure nothing has been eaten or ransacked." Hermione chuckled and stood from the small forest stream where shed been collecting water. Ever since I showed her that trick with the fruit, she'd been feeling everything. We found a surprisingly large variety of edible plants, and about as many that would kill us. The sense was good for getting a general feel of something. What might be really good for you could be as bitter as a lemon. We were both a little more careful after finding a tuber that tasted like gym socks. A natural defense mechanism I suppose.

"Yes, it would be a good Idea, plus I'm out of specimen jars anyway. And need to restock on those." I stopped short, Her back was one of those fancy 'nearly bottomless' ones. I knew she'd packed at least two hundred and fifty jars…

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "I love you, how many bugs do you have rolling around in there now?"

She grinned. "seventy five different species so far."

I shook my head and reached out giving her a gentle pinch under the arm. "You need to leave something for the colonists to do once they wake up love."

She squealed at the pinch and punched me jokingly on the arm, a scandalized look on her face.

"There's a whole bloody planet to explore Harry! There's plenty to go around!" I'd awakened her inner academic. You know what the say about poking a sleeping dragon…

"Alright, geez, breath Mione!" I laughed, putting my arms up and backing away slowly. She narrowed her eyes and flung a mild stinging hex at me. I yelped and turned, running and laughing as she took chase.

When the two of us became one with the ward stone, something inside changed, we're still human, but we're _else_ now too. A touch of the Fae perhaps? A bit of celestrial magic mixing with our DNA? I'd probably never know. We tried to have children for a few years and couldn't seem to. Superficial signs of aging never showed up as we entered our thirties. Biologically I'm around fifty one, if you count the years I was awake in space, but physically I look closer to twenty five. She hits me with another stinging hex and I yelp, picking up the pace. The two of us, are the only ones like us. We might live another thousand years, or forever. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing her maniacal grin at the thrill of the chase, such a life would be lonely. If it weren't for the woman currently trying to catch me.

I came out of the trees and into a clearing. From the maps we'd drawn, I knew the drop ship lay directly ahead, nearly three miles away still. I jogged to a stop, my breathing easy, and my smile mischievous. She eyed me as she walked into the clearing, not impressed in the slightest.

"If the world could see you now, slayer of demons, vanquisher of dark lords, running away from a little girl."

I held up my hands in a placating manner, like I was trying to calm a wild beast. Man I'd really gotten her riled up this time.

"An incredibly beautiful, talented, intelligent, dangerous woman." She smiled like a cat at those words, I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. I continued backing up, while a little bit of electricity started to dance between her fingers. It was a nifty trick used to intimidate, and it was actually working a little.

"Haaaarrry..." She grinned, a wolf's grin, showing off those straight pearly whites. I kept backing away, when my foot hit something sticking out of the ground. I tripped, arms flailing before falling over and landing on my back. I groaned as she snorted with laughter. I sat up scowling and saw her bent over double, hands on her knees. Her shoulders shook she laughed so harder. Finally she sat down as I made my way into a sitting position.

"I'm sorry Harry," more laughter, "But watching you fall like that, well, its like a jaguar tripping. You just don't expect it." I rolled my eyes and scooted over next to her. I placed an arm around her shoulder and she leaned her head on me. We could hear the sounds of a thousand alien insects chirping and twittering at one another. We'd yet to see any small flying animals, except insects. Those creatures that flew seemed all to be quite big here, and stuck to the cliffs that stretched up into the world's elevated mountain range.

I could see our frog like followers on the edge of the forest, always in the trees, peering curiously, cautiously. I stretched then, and my foot hit something sticking out of the ground; the same thing I tripped on. I opened my eyes, curious over what had made me fall, and stared.

It was a metallic fin protruding from the ground, like one found on the tail of a rocket.

Author's Notes:

Ending is a little bit of a cliff hanger, I know, but I plan on updating a bit sooner from now on. Hope you lot enjoyed, Read and review if you like.

-Harkon


	3. The Universe Grows and Grows

I will keep this short, sorry Ive been gone so long guys, i had no intention of letting this go, but life has a way of killing the muse, and i just now managed to give it a shot of elixer of life. Lets hope you lot haven't died of old age waiting

Chapter 3: The Universe grows and grows…

I blinked, dumbfounded. Hadn't even been here a month, and already we'd found something we never even considered. Most of the object was buried, a single fin, the barest hint at its true shape and size, was all that was visible.

"Mione, is that what I think it is?"

"Looks like a rocket fin Harry." Her voice was deadpan, her analytical mind in no mood for my foolhardiness.

"Ah, thought so, just checking." I got to my feet, Hermione was already crouched next to the metal, examining it closely. I took my own peek. The fin, if that's what it truly was, wasn't a shiny metal, it had a dull grey color, like lead. It didn't leave any residue on my hand, and was quite cold and hard to the touch. A subtle squeeze of my metal hand proved the stuff was strong too.

"Harry, I want to dig it up, see how big it is." I glanced at her and quirked an eyebrow.

What the Hell, why not. I stood and took a few steps back, Hermione mimed my movements, understanding without words, what I was about to do. "Lets get this sucker out of the ground." I reached out with my magic, and touched the fin, I spread it out, covering what was visible before plunging beneath the ground, feeling with my magic and surrounding the whole thing. It was bigger that I thought.

"Better to take a few more steps back, don't want the ground caving in beneath us." We scooted, and the with a hoist of my magic, the rocket, and that's what I thought it was, began to shift dirt and I shook it loose from its shallow grave.

It was one uniform color, the same muted dark grey of the fin, and was long and cylindrical. The surface was smooth though. Thousands and thousands of tiny rectangular plates, no bigger than my pointer finger, comprised the entire outside. I knew immediately it wasn't a vessel of any sort, this thing was made for terrestrial war. I lowered it to the ground and we approached. Mione's notebook was out in a flash, she scribbled furiously. I approached and let my senses wash over it. It had no visible glow, but it gave off a magical aura, weak and dim, like an artifact depleted of its stored energy. The rocket was made to destroy, and either hadn't went off on impact, or emitted some long depleted radiation without a physical explosion. Given the weakened magic coming from within, I'd say it failed and then slowly leaked energy until I pulled it out of the ground.

I told Hermione my thoughts and she nodded distractedly and gave me the barest, "mhmm," sound she could manage. I grinned and walked around the plated rocket, getting a good look at it from all the angles. Instead of a single engine, it had dozens of smaller ones, some big, some small. They seemed to be able to swivel and rotate and I realized that the rocket, with a little help from magic, could have turned on a dime using the goofy looking set up. I shook my head and inspected the hole it left behind. I could vaguely see something scattered at the bottom, but that could wait a moment. Considering the depth of the hole, and the undisturbed looking environment, I'd say this thing was dropped a loong time ago.

"Prolly centuries ago at least, so where is everybody then? No radio waves, no structures of any kind, I mean, I know we haven't walked every inch of it, and we won't be for a while, but we got a good look from space, good enough that a civilization capable of creating something like this should have been obvious."

I scratched my head, wondering idly if I was speaking to myself or Hermione. She answered that question for me next.

"Its possible that a sufficiently advance society could hide themselves quite well, either through magic or technology," I made a retching sound at the last word, playing the good little wizard for once. "Its also possible they blew themselves back to the stone age. If Earth had been able to recover, that's what it would have been for us, once all the bullets were used up."

I eye'd the oddly shaped rocket once more, noting that its tail had seven fins in all. That lent itself toward magical in origin. Muggles tended to like their even numbers, wizards were more comfortable with having extra odds and ends attached to things. I reached out and touched the small dull ingots with my flesh and blood hand. They felt almost soft, velvety. Each ingot gave off its own small spark of magic. I spotted what must have happened quickly after that.

If each rectangle worked as a small piece of shielding, maybe as a way to create over lapping protection, then a few of them must have failed in a clump. So either the energy from inside leaked out before detonation, Or it dropped out of the sky prematurely and buried itself.

I walked around the rocket, looking for that dead spot. Sure enough, toward the base of the third fin, a set of thirteen ingots were dull and dead. They looked battered as well, like I'd been throwing blasting curses at it repeatedly. The rest of the rocket looked intact.

Hermione was writing again, I was worried she'd catch the paper on fire at this rate. I leaned over and read as she wrote.

Most of it was Unintelligible Gibberish, a code Hermione used to use when recording research for the Department of Mysteries. It was a set of numbers and letters that acted as short hand. I'd always found the name funny. She filled two pages quickly, writing down everything from blaming it on aliens, to as a yet undiscovered subterranean civilization.

I sucked in air between my teeth and frowned at the rocket, Distantly, I could hear the frog like beings chirping to each other. The wind carried a strange sweet smell, almost like honeysuckle, but not quite. And this strange gleaming relic of war sticking out of the ground was like a wart on nature. I could sense the old magic, faded and nearly useless, but still there. It felt like preservation charms, strange ones designed in a way I'd never felt before.

I reached over Hermione's shoulder and tapped on the paragraph outlining the idea that the local's had built it, but probably a long time ago. "This one I think." I approached the rocket again and rested both hands on it, letting my senses roam over its bumpy surface again. "I'd say its pretty damned old, few centuries at least. It was buried before we killed Tom, a long time before." I backed away and and let my hands fall to my side.

"Think we should take it with us?" I glanced over at her at the words and frowned, not knowing if we really could.

"I have a feeling this thing won't take well to shrinking." The weak magic coming off it was familiar and alien at the same time, some of the creatures of Faye had already shown to be pretty magically resilient. If this was a magic rocket, made of magic metal, filled with some kind of ancient battery, also magical and leaking... "I'm afraid it'll blow up, also, why aren't there more words for magic? Doesn't it seem to get redundant after a while?" I let the stray thought settle, and Hermione ignored me, not that I blamed her, I ignored half the things that came out of my mouth too.

She sighed and chewed on the tip of her pen, an adorable habit. Hermione ran her hands over it next, eyes taking on a slight honey glow. "Hmm, perhaps we should bury it again? Just slap a tracker on it so we know where to find it. I want to take a better look at this thing once we get something a little more permanent set up."

I let her finish up her notes while I buried it underground again, leaving the fin sticking out and all. I glanced up when my ears detected that now familiar chirping sound. Several of our frog like followers where clinging high up in a nearby singing tree. One of them was pointing to the rocket, and miming something with his hands, like he was telling the others what I'd done.

"Hey Mione," She was still writing and didn't look up. I poked her, making her jump a bit. "Look at our friends again, notice anything? They're a bit closer than usual, excited over the hubub I suppose."

She cast her eyes at the frog like beings and I saw her eyes widen noticeably. "Are those what I think they are?"

"If you think those dudes over there are wearing loincloths, and that they might be a little smarter than they've let on before, then yes I think they are what you think they are." I chuckled at myself, I was really trying to tie my tongue up today. "At any rate, I don't think they're just animals."

"W-what do you think we should do Harry? Meeting aliens for the first time seems to be more up your alley."

"Hey now, you've met plenty of aliens since we got here!"

"Yeah, but none that might be able to talk, thats your special brand of weird lover boy."

"Aww, I'm touched, aren't you scared I might fuck up the first meeting? start an inner species war or something by using the wrong salad fork?" Hermione rolled her eyes but laughed, which is what I was aiming for anyway.

"I might be too… inquisitive for a first meeting, I think you can manage to break the ice." I nodded, smiling broadly.

"Well, they're very cautious, and have bolted anytime we tried directly interacting with them. But we've been on Faye almost a week now and they haven't tried attacking us. I'll give it a whirl."

With no real pretense I just started strolling in their direction. Almost instantly the soft chirping stopped. The one that had been doing all the gesturing earlier seemed to have hushed the rest, a leader perhaps? As i drew closer, I noticed that they did indeed seem to be wearing loincloths of some kind. A few even had something akin to pants, but were lined and stitched differently. The froglings might have had two legs and two arms, but that's were their features stopped looking anything humanoid.

I got within twenty feet of the first tree and looked directly up at them. We studied each other for a few moments. What must they think of us? Something so different from anything they knew. From what Hermione and I could tell, about every animal on Faye had a double set of eyes. No matter how many the creature had, another one would be nestled closely on top. The froglings weren't any different. Each of them gazed down at me with four eyes. Their skin was bone white, with a light brown splotchy pattern. They had spindly limbs and wide mouths.

I thought about smiling, decided I didn't want to show any teeth, and slowly raised both my hands to head height. I'd read a theory some thousand years ago, about universal signs. Some scientists believed that certain gestures would be common in almost any culture. I had no idea if it would work or not. The leader stilled, four eyes narrowing. I stood a little straighter, lifting my arms higher. That was a mistake.

The leader tensed and barked out a chirp to the others. He brought one spinnly arm down in a chopping motion, saying something in that strange language at the same time. I felt a pressure slam down on me from above, like someone had multiplied my own personal gravity several times. I grit my teeth and let my hands fall to my side. Sweat broke out across my brow and I glared up at the froglings. They looked surprised I was still on my feet.

"Hey! What the Hell! I'm just trying to be neighborly!" I noticed then that several of them had moved, A few on the ground now. My body tensed, eyes narrowed. The leader looked at me suspiciously. He chirped out a command and the slowly approaching warriors, for that's what they clearly were, stopped in their tracks. The leader, biggest of them all, let go of his tree and plummeted to the ground. I felt the vibration as he landed. The frogling was tall, with muscular arms and legs, thin as they were. Most of his people seemed shorter than the average human, but he was clearly not, easily looking me straight in the eyes.

He chirped at me then, although his came out as more of a deep croak. I could clearly tell he was speaking to me, but I hadn't a clue as to what he said.

"I'm not from here, I don't speak your language." I kept my tone neutral as best I could while still under the effect of the frogling's magic.

He croaked again, but it sounded different this time, more clipped, less fluid and rolling. Several clicks were now mixed in, a different language? Big fella was trying different ones to see if I understood. I frowned and sighed. I knew of several different translation spells, but I had no idea how they would react to a language from another planet. Plus if I cast anything they might just skewer me to be on the safe side. I gave a mental shrug, fuck it.

With a subtle twitch of my fingers I cast the spell. It was the most diverse language translator I knew, capable of translating multiple languages at once, and once cast, the magic got a better grasp of the language over time as more words were translated.

The leader scowled at me, he might have felt that. His mouth opened to chirp at me angrily again.

"Charp... ... the fuck... ...chirp twirt... ...do monster?!" I blinked, It was working better than I could have hoped for, that I got anything at all was a miracle. I wonder if Hermione was concerned for my safety, or merely taking notes. I suppose she could be doing both right now.

When I spoke next I kept my voice as flat and toneless as possible. The magic was now working in the other way, which was trickier, considering it didn't have much to work with yet, just my... limited exposure.

"To help us understand each other. I mean no harm."

The leader took a step back, I wonder how it sounded to him? I hope I hadn't insulted his mother.

"Chirp... ...understand? No mean harm?"

"Yes, I want no fighting." He seemed to have picked up what I meant a little better now, I felt the pressure on me lessen, but didn't completely leave.

"The more we talk, the better it works."

"What are you?" Wow, blunt and straight to the point with this one.

I almost started laughing. "I'm an alien."

He took a step back after this and I wonder if the translator had figured it out. He narrowed his eyes at me. He held up a hand, I realized he had six fingers then, long and thing but strong. He lifted one finger and pointed up.

"From... chirp... there? Alien?" I nodded and smiled.

This seemed to annoy him more than anything else. "Why ...charp... here?"

"My home was sick, and died. Not many of us left. We looked for a place to be our new home. This was the closest one with life, and magic." He looked a bit confused at that so I repeated myself. Understanding seemed to come over him then.

"How many of you?"

"On the planet? Just my wife and I, there are a thousand others, but they sleep above." I repeated this again, clearly with as little accent as possible. If i kept repeating what I said, the spell would work a little better.

"For whole people...chirp... that is few. you have magic, feels strange."

"What do you mean?" The longer we talked the weaker the pressure on me grew. I knew if I pushed I could snap it, wouldn't have caused me any real difficulty either, but I wanted to do things peacefully for once.

"My magic, all magic all my life, felt... chirp... same, like family. You feel... older. My magic feels like egg next to your magic."

I realized then what the double set of eyes were for. The frog man was looking at me intently, his smaller, higher set eyes narrowed, and they gleamed, one could almost say twinkled. Those eyes didn't see like his normal one's, those eyes were looking at magic.

I blinked, letting my own senses expand, letting my seeing slide sideways into the realm of magic. On Earth you could see magic like roots running through the ground, thick and strong, and everywhere. It danced in the sky, and filled the plants and animals. They would glow and spark, like flickering thunderstorms of light in the shape of their mortal selves. Humans could be particularly beautiful. But, there were blank spots. Magic could be seen anywhere, at about any given time, but not everything was magical. Those mundane things, were always dark when I saw this way. Not on Faye though.

It was like looking through a klideoscope after taking a ferociously powerful hit of acid. The world lit up like neon rainbows. My brain shorted out for a split second, completely overwhelmed. "Wow... I hadn't looked yet, not like this." I'd felt it before of course, I was always feeling things with my magic, I just didn't look that often. That might change soon.

The frogling was a rolling cloud of greens and bright orange, bubbly almost. I looked down at my own hand. The dark green thundercloud that made up my being was a stark contrast to the nearly orgasmic explosion of color I was experiencing.

I looked at the frog man again, and noticed the pressure was completely gone now. "I, I see what you mean."

"You feel so very old alien, your companion is similar, but not old like you, your magic is...charp... denser than mine."

I nodded. "Magic moves freely here, it is in everything. My home's magic could be found in most places, but not like this. It was more... concentrated." I looked at him for a moment, noticing most of his companions were out of the tree now, I glanced over at Hermione. She was writing furiously, and kept sending me looks, asking if she could come over with her eyes. It was killing her not being over here. "Can I call my wife over? She really wants to meet you."

"Call her, we have much to discuss... including what you pulled from the ground."

I grinned and waved at Hermione, motioning her over to us. I Turned back to the frog man... Fayeian? I didn't think that through when I came up with the name. I'd just ask him what his people called themselves.

"My name is Harry, My wife is Hermione, she is very curious by nature, be prepared for many questions."

An expression crossed his face that seemed something akin to amusement. "I am Called Svenwhick. I am glad to have met you Harry." I grinned, the translation spell was working better now. I had an idea that all the magic floating around in the air would have a funny effect on traditional spell casting. It seems my crotchety old magic was playing nicely with the whippersnapper's

Hermione practically glided over to us. I blinked, if I didn't know better I would have sworn she apparated. Once my wife got close enough, I opened up the translation spell, allowing it to encompass her. She blinked at the subtle shift in the air. Svenwhick was looking at her curiously, having never seen her up close.

"Interesting, and we had thought she was wearing some sort of odd fern as a hat. " He traced the side of his eye thoughtfully, as I would my chin, the two gestures eerily similar.

Hermione blinked, and a scandalized look crossed her features. "Harry, is he talking about my hair?" I cracked a smile, trying desperately not to laugh.

For his part, Svenwhick looked embarrassed. "I apologize, your biology is quite different from anything we've seen. We did not realize it was...chirp... hair."

Hermione shrugged after a moment. "I've been traipsing around a jungle for days, I imagine I could do worse than being mistaken for a bush." like that the ice was broken.

The next few hours were filled with blurred conversation. Svenwhick's group relaxed around us more as we retreated into the forest as a group. I casually conjured a few seats for everyone, wondering at the dimensions for our new friends before shrugging and taking a guess.

Svenwhich stared at me after I'd created the seats. He poked at one with a long finger, and seemed surprised to find it solid. "How did you manage this?"

"Its one of those fun branches of magic that violates the laws of nature. We call it conjuration, or to create something from nothing. Though I have my doubts that its truly doing that. Do you not have a similar branch of study?"

Swenwhich shook his head. "We can change one thing to another, drastically altering shape and size, but we can't make something from nothing, not that I've ever seen. This world is fluid and always changing. Its surface will look entirely different in a hundred years, it is always shifting about. Changing one thing to another is easy. Making something from nothing, I have never thought to try."

Hermione spoke up then. "I'm sure you could, magic is magic after all. Ours might feel a bit different, but it is in essence the same thing. Look how well they interact. We can speak to one another, but are from different planets. By all rights it shouldn't even begin to work, but it does anyway."

The conversation carried on for hours. dressed as warriors they might be, but these fellas were nerds at heart, and I was growing fond of them. Not only could the Charyepchee, their name for themselves, see magic from birth, but they could smell and taste it too. They had whole branches of magic focused around discerning the flavor of magic in the air. I was kinda jealous of that. Their medical magic seemed to be quite advanced too, Svenwhich had asked me about my hand.

"We have tales, of our people once using limbs such as yours; but they are old stories. Could you not grow another?"

I thought about it, we had had many cures for things on Earth, after Hermione's time, wizard and muggle technology had continued to advance. I'd heard that science was getting close to growing completely new bodies before the catastrophe that burned the world. Wizards had always taken a replace over repair method if the damage got to severe.

"In my world's prime, it would have been possible. But when we left, our world was dying, society had mostly vanished, much knowledge was lost. I knew how to make one of these, because I'm a bit old fashioned. Its been infused with so much magic over the years that I don't think I could remove it if I tried." I wiggled my metal fingers, showing that they were just as dexterous as my flesh one's.

Svenwhich nodded then, looking pensive. "How did your world die?"

Hermione sighed and answered this one. "We got to big for ourselves. We advanced too quickly and became over crowded. Centuries ago when it began, we tried turning to space, to escape and broaden our horizons. With more breathing room, it was hoped that we could remain peaceful with each other. Those of us that know that much, aren't sure what happened next. Neither Harry or I were actually present then, but the space program failed, those few that made it off the ground lost contact when the war kicked off."

I hadn't been alive during that generation, waking up only as the war truly began. I missed out on all the space exploration and instead got to deal with an ever more dangerous nuclear war. That had been one of my bloodier lives. I wondered then Idly, where I would go when I eventually died this time. I shrugged, not something I could really worry about.

Svenwhick and the others sat listening to us describe the downfall of Earth. Somber were their expressions, sad. And dare I say it, there was a hint of understanding there.

"Our people were once great and numerous. We had cities that dotted the world. Our structures were woven inbetween the strands of magic in the very air. As the land moved and changed, so did our cities. But there were others, other beings, intelligent like us, but ruthless. As you say, war advances a people, but not always in a good way."

He paused, taking a drink from what looked like a hollowed out gourd, it glowed slightly with a green light.

"What you pulled from the ground is a weapon of our ancestors. We no longer have the knowledge to make them, but the story of what they can do has survived since before the times of my great grandfathers. They erased everything within their sphere of influence. Did not destroy it, did not kill. Erased."

I thought about the bombs of our own world, thought of the destruction brought on by nuclear holocaust. If We'd had access to a bomb of this nature the world would have died centuries sooner.

"You had a war, something that destroyed society, your way of life." Hermione looked sad as she spoke, I couldn't blame her. Even in a fantastical place like this, war still loomed.

Svenwhick nodded gravely. "We do not know much of what happened before, but we never really recovered either. My people can still be found in small pockets across this world, but we are few and far between. I do not know if our society as you say could have ever returned to what it was, and I don't think I would want it to if it could. We have learned to live with our world, to exist with it. Our ancestors wanted to be above it, to enslave it. Their enemies were even worse. Magic is not just a tool, it feels, it is alive, in a fashion. If you listen, you can hear it speaking in the wind."

With magic interweaved into everything on this world as it was, It wouldn't shock me at all. I've never known magic to be truly sentient, but it flowed differently on our world, was more condensed and less saturated into everything. Perhaps such a force could speak, to those it chose to.

The sun had finally begun its slow winding journey to the other side of the world, leaving us in haze of golden and orange light that would last for several hours. I stood, stretching from conjured chair, and felt my muscles quiver after having been contracted for so long. I walked around the clearing, listening to the chatter of the others. Most seemed excited at meeting aliens, but a few were very wary of us, not that I could blame them. I think I'd be worried too about strangers from the skies.

Hermione and I still intended to make our way to our ship tonight, but I don't know if we'd managed it now.

"You are still some distance from your vessel, our village is much closer, we would offer hospitality for the night, and I'm sure our leader would like to meet you."

I laughed, take me to your leader indeed. I glanced at Hermione, and without a word knew she was bursting at the seems to go, she lived for learning, and what better way to discover things about a new planet, but to interview the denizens of it?

"We would be honored to visit your home Svenwhick." Hermione smiled at my words. As the sun continued to set, the charyepchee led us through the forest toward they're home.

2.

When we'd first spotted the charyepchee we didn't know that they were sentient, but we had suspected that they lived in the tree tops. We weren't disappointed. Our little group came to a spot amongst the trees that seemed different somehow. I could feel something that felt like a ward, but much like all the magic we'd discovered on this world so far, it felt… liquid almost, constantly shifting and rearranging itself. A conventional ward breaker wouldn't know what to do with such a thing. Wards back home were always stationary, and required a focal stone to remain stable, but with all the ambient magic that didn't seem necessary. Hermione or I could have popped it like a bubble with a judicious application of force, but that was the only way I could see to bypass it.

"You feel that Mione?"

"The craziest ward I've ever seen? Yeah its kinda hard to miss love." She smiled and rolled her eyes at me. Svenwhich seemed amused at the back and forth. Two trees stood in front of us, but instead of tall, thin, and straight, these two leaned together and touched, twisting together into one tree about thirty feet above us.

"Welcome to our home." He led us through the two spiraling trees and my eyes widened at the sight before me. Dozens of huts seemed to be built in the trees. They seemed to grow from the sides, and in some cases the trees seemed to grow straight through the center of some of them. Bridges and walkways connected many of the huts together; spiral stairs with oddly fat and flat steps wrapped around many of them, providing an easy way up to the main village. A large purple fire was lit in the center. Many Charyepchee were milling about, going about their evening business. I smiled as a group of long legged children came bouncing past, some of them running with graceful loping motions, others were hopping on all fours. Their chirping laughter and banter made me smile.

It only took a few moments before we were noticed. Most of the villagers in the immediate area stopped what they were doing and stood, gaping at us. We must have been awfully funny looking to them. I raised my metal hand with a smile and waved. "Hi."

Hermione's cheeks turned red from all the attention. Trust the woman to lead into battle, tear trolls and other monsters apart with her bare hands, but she couldn't stand being stared at. A particularly tall charyepchee, sporting a rough spun tunic made of blue material, approached us. It was hard to tell given the little experience I had to go on, but this fellow, I could tell he was male from his skin patterns, seemed older than most. He seemed strong though, with wiry muscles and a loping gate.

He approached Svenwhick and started conversing with him rapidly.

"What's going on here son? When we discovered the travelers I asked you to watch them but not to approach. We do not know if they are dangerous or not, why bring them here?"

Svenwhick had the good grace to look sheepish, at least I thought he did, alien facial expressions would take some getting used to.

"We did not approach them father, This one," He pointed a thin finger at me, "approached us. I do not believe him to be a threat."

I waved at them both and the older of the two looked at me shrewdly. I couldn't blame him, I'd probably be wary of aliens too. "I don't wish to cause your people any trouble, we can go if you wish." The older Charyepchee seemed mildly surprised at being able to understand me. The rest of the villagers seemed bent on eavesdropping, even if most of them were inconspicuous about it. I sensed something coming at me head and turned to catch a green ball. It felt soft and fuzzy in my hand, like an oversized tennis ball, but it wasn't perfectly round. The ball had been thrown by a child, who now looked completely terrified. A group of kids was huddled behind him whispering and staring. I wondered if they'd put her up to it.

I smiled down at the child and crouched. I placed the ball on the ground and rolled it back to the kid. At the last second I added a drop of magic, making the ball bounce up and into the Charyepchee girl's hands.

The leader watched this pensively before approaching the two of us for himself. Hermione looked all the world like she wanted nothing more than to pull out another notebook and begin scribbling. I was impressed she managed not to.

He came up to the both of us, Svenwhick's father, and spoke. "I do not wish to be rude, but your presence has caught me by surprise. My son is known to think with his heart instead of his head sometimes. It usually works out for the best though." He bowed to me slightly as a greeting. "I am Instar, leader of this village."

I smiled, I didn't see the harm in it, since it appeared to be an expression human and Charyepchee shared. I bowed back slightly, Hermione following my lead. "Nothing to worry about, I would be wary of aliens in my midst as well. My name is Harry, and with me is my wife, Hermione."

The woman in question couldn't hold in her excitement anymore. "Your village is beautiful! I love how you've blended the architecture with nature."

Instar smiled at this. "Thank you young one." I mentally snorted at that. Hermione was well over two hundred years old now, even if a great portion of it was spent sleeping in a magical space ship. I'd lost track of birthdays, that happens after a few thousand years. I idly wondered again at what would happen to me when this life actually ended, not something I could spend much time worrying about, at this point it was more curiosity that anything.

Hermione was bursting with questions and I was content to let her do the talking, I wondered back over the Svenwhick, who had a bemused expression on his face. "You weren't kidding, your mate is one of the most curious creatures I've ever met."

A bit of laughter escaped my lips at that. "She's curiosity incarnate. My wife has dedicated her life to knowledge. I know it might not be obvious to you, but I'm a fair bit older than her, and I'm positive there's subjects she could talk circles around me about."

It was his turn to laugh, a soft sound, like a bird singing in iambic pentameter. I wasn't afraid to admit it was a lovely sound.

Over the next hour the people of Instar's village came to us and asked questions. We answered them to the best of our ability, and asked our own in turn. The Charyepchee indeed seemed to be the survivors of an advanced society that was destroyed long ago. They had stories of their people visiting the other worlds within the system, stories of webs of information that crisscrossed the planet, but the legends were old now, and they didn't even know what had led to their downfall, other than war. It was good to see the people survive in some fashion, and better to see that this world hadn't suffered nearly as much as my own had.

The sun had finally gone down, the little crowd we'd drawn was dispersing, the people returning to their homes for the evening. Svenwhick insisted we bunk with him for the night, and the two of us obliged without complaint.

It was a peaceful night for the both of us.


	4. Chasing Thieves

We ended up staying for three days. Since we'd gotten to Faye, Hermione and I had been roughing it. We'd left our shuttle in a clearing, safe in that our wards should keep out any unwanted critters, and had been back packing since. We'd had a wizard tent, a recreation anyway, but it was little more than an expanded room to keep our heads dry. Once we found a suitable place for a colony, we'd move the ship, and set it up as our first rudimentary home.

But that was still a ways in the future; for now a hot bath and a reasonably comfortable bed had worked wonders for us.

Before we left the village I had a gift for Svenwhick.

"Here, in case you want to contact us and don't feel like hunting us down." I handed him a small rectangular mirror with a simple silver edge. "Look into it and call my name, I have a similar mirror, we can talk through them."

Something of a smile crossed Svenwhick's face. "Thank you Harry, we will remember this. If you find yourself in need, don't fear calling for help as well." I nodded at the alien man and stuck out my hand. While the Charyepchee had different means, It took little explanation for Svenwhick to understand. We grasped hands, two species separated by centuries of time, and millions of miles of space, departing as friends.

We walked for some time, idly chatting about what we'd learned from the Charyepchee. A simplistic map I'd been creating as we explored now held a star signifying the Charyepchee village. I wondered in the long run, how useful would a map be on a world constantly shifting and changing.

"A city built here would have to be a marvel of architecture and magic to even be functional."

Hermione was having a time trying to wrap her head around the calculations involved. I shrugged. "Haven't the foggiest love, that's one branch of magic I never found the need to delve into. Especially considering they'd have to adjust on the fly, makes those old moving staircases a bit of a joke doesn't it?"

She laughed a little at that, shaking her head. "I suppose so. The magic is so familiar and yet different here, almost like it-" she was cut off by the sound of a snarling gasp off to our left, quickly followed by another to our right. We stopped, tense.

Hermione and I had left the singing trees behind some time ago. Instead of retracing our footsteps, we were heading in a straight line back to the drop ship. The forest we were in now was much darker, the trees more like giant ferns. There seemed to be creatures nearby we hadn't encountered yet.

Two more snarling yips came, seemingly at random. I stretched out my sense, trying to judge how many there were, but the signals I got made little sense, the high magic of the world hid distinct signatures well. The ones I could pick out kept disappearing randomly; back into the larger folds of magic.

There was a flash of mint green color, I raised my metal hand at the blur of motion and blocked a powerful strike. The physical attack surprised me, and left a jarring sensation in my shoulder. The blur of motion vanished as quick as it came, a mere fraction of a second. It happened again, two mint green blurs. I raised a shield around myself as Hermione did the same.

The blurs didn't stop, they bashed into our shields, unable to get through. In a blink, four quadrupedal figures materialized. They were large, nearing the size of a horse. Short mint green bristles covered their entire bodies, the skin beneath was darker in color. Two powerful tails dragged behind each of them. Each possessed a snout, with a dozen or so mandibles that clicked and spun. A double set of orange, pinprick eyes sat above the mess of a face. They yipped and snarled, drooling thick ropes of dark mucus. I could sense them now, but one stepped forward and vanished, I felt its magical signature dip into the flowing rivers of energy that swept through this world. It reappeared along with its signature right in front of Hermione, snapping and snarling at the translucent power she held in place. They could swim into the currents of magic, holy shit.

"Did you see that?" I was calm, I'd never seen anything like this, but I didn't believe they could bypass our shields.

She merely nodded, eyes a little wide. "We had nothing like it on Earth. Thunder birds, phoenixes, and the like were believed to be able to accomplish something similar, but never fully vanish, they needed an element to travel through, which always left a trace. It doesn't seem like these creatures need it."

Our would be attackers were growing impatient, they snapped and snarled, darting into and out of the magic of the world to strike before retreating again. I wondered if we could wait them out, how long it might take them to seek easier prey. I decided not to wait.

I flared my power outward so that it blanketed the area and the almost wolf like beasts. It seemed to make them disoriented, not scared precisely, but alarmed. One made a final bid at attack and tried melding back into the magic.

Im not for certain how my interference affected it, but the mandibled, bristled wolf only made it halfway inside. The back half of the beast dropped to the ground with a wet slump. It hadn't been neatly severed, but rather torn by the currents of magic.

The others glared at me with rudimentary intelligence. Another leapt and was similarly killed. I found it odd that the top front of the beasts hadn't reappeared, as if the magic of the world had simply absorbed it completely.

The others growled and snapped their mandibles, angry but cautious now. I grinned back. "You know, I've been thinking-"

"Don't hurt yourself love."

"Right, I'll be careful, but I was thinking, once we get the others on the ground, we might need work animals, or something we could ride like horses." Hermione quirked an eyebrow at me and sauntered over, her shield moving right along with her. Our new animal companions had started circling us now, but I paid them little attention. She ran a hand down my chest, sending tingly bolts of lightning up my spine, drawing a smile from my face. She leaned forward, eyes hooded like she was going to kiss me, our lips were close, nearly met.

"You are an idiot." I laughed a bit at that, she kissed me anyway and leaned against me. "You just want to ride one don't you?"

I shrugged, without ever last impending doom hovering over my head, id managed to mellow a bit over the years. "Okay, you caught me, but you gotta admit they look like big ugly horse dogs."

She patted me on the cheek and stared back at them. "How about we find something a little less lovecraftian as work animals?"

I sighed, big and exaggerated, before nodding my head solemnly. " Oh I suppose." I sent out a burst of magical energy, and as I hoped, the bright, but mostly harmless, light scared them back and away. The biggest of the group glared over its shoulder, and I tagged it with a tracking charm before It headed off after its brethren.

I shook my head, this world was so wild. I wondered if it had always been that way, or if the Charyepchee had managed to tame if for a while, before their downfall let the world flourish freely again. I had to keep reminding myself that these weren't monsters, weren't abominations that needed killing for the sake of it. They were animals, strange, alien, and magical, but animals all the same. "No demons here." I muttered it quietly so Hermione wouldn't hear; talking to myself made her question my sanity more than normal.

I doubted the bristle back creatures were the only predators in these dark woods, but they were the only ones that bothered us as we made our way back to the ship.

2.

Our journey toward the drop ship led us through an open plain. The strange fungus like substance the grew in big patches was absent here, instead stalks of vibrant viridian grass grew for miles. It glowed with a faint light, a shimmer barely noticeable under the suns in the sky. I call it grass for a lack of a better word, in truth they looked more like gently swishing tails, fuzzy with pods almost like corn sprouting at random. They stood nose level to me, leaving Hermione buried within them.

"We'd be lost in here for days without magic. It's a bit unnerving really, I feel like something is constantly watching me in here, and does this grass tickle you as much as it does me?"

I thought about telling Hermione that I was the one watching her, or her bum more specifically, but I held my tongue. "I wouldn't call it a tickle, so much as a little electric shock. Like these stalks are zapping us with static electricity." She huffed, swiping some of her hair out of her eyes and pulling a drink for her canteen. Sweat dotted her face, a single drop hung on the tip of her nose.

"That might explain the glow I suppose, maybe they store energy that way." The water disappeared and was replaced with one of her notebooks. She jotted down a few notes along with a sketch of the plants and estimated how far they were from the ship, so we could come investigate later.

We didn't see much in the way of animals through the grass, a few small rodents darting about, and something that looked like a featherless ostrich with four eyestalks crossed our path once, but it moved on quickly after noticing us.

It took nearly an hour to cross the grasslands, and then two more through sparse trees and underbrush. Those trees were strange, with bare branches the wriggled like snakes and striped trunks. Not much longer though and we entered familiar territory.

The closer we got, the more sure I became that something was wrong. I found a frown crossing my features. I couldn't feel the ship, or rather, I could barely feel it. That shouldn't be possible. The ship was more magical in construction than mundane, and given how different its own magic should have felt to the world around us, it should have stuck out like a sore thumb. But no, all II felt was a bump, an insignificant bulge where there should have been so much more. Hermione wasn't as in tune with her senses as I was, but she felt it only seconds after I did.

"That's not good…"

I grimaced and nodded. "No, its not, be alert love, we've only seen a fraction of this world, its hard to tell what still might be hiding from us." The wards themselves, those we'd set to protect our home away from home, were still active and buzzing. What the hell? Nothing should have managed to squeeze past them, especially after I strengthened them further. I knew things on this world were more magical than back home, but this was a little much.

I felt my stomach drop when we finally found out way back to the drop ship. Our things were torn out and scattered everywhere. Books, notes, jars and samples, A few small knick knacks we'd taken with us, our clothes. It was like a tornado had torn through our camp and up ended everything. My frown deepened at the sight of the ship itself. The opening had been left ajar, and I could sense only a fraction of its power left. I let primordial magic flood my veins, making my eyes glow viridian and my hair waiver and drift with power, a bit of it even crackled across my skin. I was angry, and done taking chances.

I strode into the ship, hell bent on ripping anything I saw to pieces, only to come up short, the magic fading from me. The inside was trashed. Panels had been torn loose, wires and cables, magical tubing lay everywhere. The ship was dark and I immediately looked, only to find the runic matrix that provided power had been ripped out of the console.

I looked around, noting Hermione coming in behind me. The delicate instruments we'd used for navigation were gone as well, the smaller runic matrixes that ran the lights, life support and the scrying mirrors we used as cameras were also missing.

"Fuck!" I turned to look at Mione, not used to hearing her swear so vehemently. " some of this stuff took us years to make! I don't even know how to begin replacing any of it here." She looked skyward, as if to curse some god or other, and I noticed the despair in her eyes. She was thinking of the sleeping colonists, floating several hundred miles above us.

I walked over and rubbed her shoulders, letting my own anger fade into the background for now. "Worst case scenario we can always apparate them down in groups Mione. We know where the ship is, we'll just have to map out a safe area on the ground to bring them to first. Its going to be okay."

She nodded with her head down and leaned against me for a moment. "Just so much work, down the drain and we haven't been here a month yet. This is proving more difficult than we thought it might."

I snorted in dry humor. "Its at least stranger than we thought it would be."

Hermione's eyes were casting about the room, and they narrowed on one of the few panels that hadn't been ripped open. She stood straighter and marched across the dilapidated room, purpose in her stride.

"Maybe we can still find out what happened." She opened a side port and stuck a finger inside. I heard a popping sound like static discharge and the panel lit up. Hermione had given it a direct charge from her own reserves, it wasn't a long term fix, wouldn't last longer than a few minutes, but I understood what she was doing instantly. A mirror above the panel glowed briefly before displaying an image of the inside of the ship, before it was wrecked. I walked up behind her and peered over her shoulder. She was fast forwarding the image, skipping past until she came to when the trouble started. A second image appeared, halving the size of the first. Now it showed a view of the inside and outside of our vessel.

Strange creatures came into view, walking on their hands and feet. They resembled molted, blue monkeys, with bare patches on their long arms. Two tails swished behind them, and those double sets of eyes that seemed common on Faye dotted their brows. They didn't act like monkeys, they seemed subdued, almost trance like. I frowned as I watched them step right through the wards with no apparent trouble.

I was going to have to remedy that. The magic of Faye was too different, too new and wild. My magic was old, more tempered by the eons. In other words I had to keep the brats out of my yard. I decided then i'd start studying the actual magic of the world more closely.

Hermione and I watched, switching between different views as they approached the ship. When they were within a few feet, all hell broke loose. It was like they snapped, becoming energetic and crazed. We saw them ripping through everything, tearing into the ship and gutting it of all the magically charged artifacts. They fought and squabbled amongst each other, fighting over who got to carry them away. I winced as several delicate components were thrown and tugged at.

Finally after several hours of pilfering and fighting they retreated, heading west off in a direction we hadn't explored much yet.

"Damn it all, have to find a ward scheme that works better here, they didn't even notice it!"

I grunted in frustration as the mirror faded away. Hermione leaned away from it and headed for the door. She glanced over her shoulder and looked at me. "Come on Harry, lets go get our stuff back."

3.

Its true that we could have used charms to track them through the wilderness. There were spells that could follow almost anything If one knew how to use them properly. But the two of us weren't tracking, we were hunting.

In a blur of motion and magic our shapes changed. Gone were hands and feet, to be replaced with paws, tails sprouted from our spines, and the structure that made us what we were shifted. Two dire wolves now roamed the forests of Faye, and we were intent on catching our prey.

The thousands of alien smells washed over us, but the strongest was a pungent stench, mixed with the subtle smell of our magic.

Hermione and I bounded off after them. There is a freeness and wildness about the shape of a wolf that no human body could compare to. The sent of the thieves was heavy in the air, a smell that burned itself into my mind.

I let my senses stretch out and blanket us for miles in a way I hadn't in years. I could sense the smallest of bugs, and even a small party of Charyepchee, hunting at the edges of my perception.

Through the brush and between the trees we chased them. As a wolf I could smell magic, the very world reeked of it, but it was a pleasant scent.

They had wrecked our ship days before, but the trail was strong and careless, piles of scat were dotted about, trees had been scratched and the underbrush was disturbed. These creatures, the closest thing to primates we'd found so far, were careless. I wondered at that, why not take to the trees? Did they not fear predators? It was a lesson I was eager to rectify.

The trail meandered through this alien forest, but both Hermione and I could tell that it kept a fairly straight course, leading us back to what we believed were their home. My tongue lolled out cooling me as we came to the edge of the wood. We'd been running for the better part of two hours and the trees had begun to thin now.

Stretched out before us was a bubbling swamp. Thick fumes and vapors drifted on the wind in the distance, the ground beneath our paws was growing softer the farther we walked from the forest. The soil had a sandy quality to it, with little bits of purple mixed in with the more mundane yellows and reds. I could smell dozens of different animals scents, strange slithering and crawling things in the muck; some as small as a hand, others larger than I was now. But none of them were wolf, none of them were predators like Hermione and I were. And that pungent scent, dotted with whiffs of my own magic, ran dead ahead.

We didn't waste another moment, our wind recovered, we loped forward into the mess. I could see where the thieves had stood, the small sandy banks and twisting thick vines that bubbled out of the water, and we used them to follow. Our paws leapt and jumped, from one spot to the next, keeping us above the water and out of the muck. The sulfur smell threatened to overpower the trail, but we weren't pups, this was something we had done many times before, hunting an enemy.

We must have been at the very edges of the swamp, because I didn't take us nearly as long to cross most of it as I thought it would. Off to the south I could see that it grew outward in all directions, growing and twisting for miles and miles. Our little part was just the tail of a massive beast of a swamp. Perhaps the thieves used it to hide their scent or cover their trail. I knew not, nor did I care, it would not stop us.

Hermione and I kept as dry as we could as we moved through the swamp, growing closer to the far edge all the time. I saw an animal shifting in the mud next to us, some horrific beast that looked between a cross of an alligator, an eel, and a muskrat. Such a magically charged world… things either seemed beautiful, or horrific. There was very little we'd seen that would fall in between the two extremes. Something big and twisting rose up from the edge of the swamp, seeming to almost grow up and out of it. There was no distinct change in landscape, it was gradual, and blended smoothly, organically, from one to the other.

I had never seen anything quite like it. It was a plant of some sort, or perhaps a series of plants twisted together, but I had never seen a plant so large, so endless feeling. Hundreds of layers of vine like roots twisted and snarled between us. They were so tangled and over lapping that it looked more like a wall than any kind of plant. Giant knots of the twisting fibers rose up behind the mass, creating a warped and bumping landscape. It was all so thick you could have walked over it, but their were so many rivets and dips scattered about like blemishes that it would be difficult to keep you footing, or even avoiding a broken ankle. But that didn't matter, not for the top, because the trail didn't lead up and over the mass of twisting root like structures, it lead into it. We stopped before a particularly large gap in the mess and stared into the dark opening, like a cave that had grown instead of formed.

We both sensed that the chase was over now, and that we may need the magic of our true shapes soon. As one we shifted and morphed, tails shrinking and paws once more taking the shape of hands and feet, the fur retracted, and our ears lost that triangular shape common among all wolves. I sighed as the baser instincts of the wolf fled from the forefront of my mind, sinking into the background once more, but never truly gone.

Hermione spoke first, her voice cracked slightly from disuse and the sudden change in her vocal folds. "Well that's a bit ominous isn't it?"

I chuckled dryly. "You could say that love. I suppose this is the little bastards' den. I wonder how far in it goes?" My senses were still stretched out before me, but that could make little sense of the twisting mass before us. It was too thick, too tangled in itself to make much sense of what I was feeling. I could tell Hermione wasn't having much more luck than I was at deciphering the mess.

"Well there's only one way to find out." I looked at her at those words, and saw a drop of that primordial magic dancing just beneath the surface of her skin, giving her a slight, soft glow. I have to admit it made an entirely different animal rear up inside of me. She'd always had that affect on me, but I had to keep my mind firmly on the task at hand and out of the gutter.

I pinged her with a tracking charm. "Just in case." She nodded and did the same to me. I felt her presence wash over me like a comforting blanket before that too faded into the background.

I reached out and took her hand and the two of us entered the darkness. The smell was strong, even with a man's nose. Mine crinkled in disgust at the humid pungent aroma. It was dark within, only small beams of light managed to worm their way through the tangled mess. It only took us a moment to realize this wasn't going to be as easy as we thought. What we had at first thought would be a shallow entrance packed with blue two tailed monkeys, was in fact a rough tunnel made of this strange plant.

I heard Hermione sigh from next to me and I squeezed her hand as we moved forward. The tunnel let to a small chamber of sorts, a wide spot in the mess. Numerous tunnels stretched out in different directions. I felt agitation rose up in me, with a flick of my hand I enacted those old tracking charms, trying to see which way they had went. As I feared, there were traces everywhere; the thieves didn't seem to take any one particular path.

"This is going to take a while…" Mione's voice was low, little more than a whisper.

"We wont be able to follow them directly, just have to feel for the artifacts and make our way through." The two of us stopped and concentrated on locating that distant ping of our own magic. Hermione felt it first.

"Northwest of here I think." She pointed down one of the wider tunnels, my charms confirmed that there were slightly fresher prints heading in the direction. "How do they live in this and not get lost constantly?"

I shrugged. "Some people would say the same thing about Hogwarts love." She gave me a dry smile in return before we headed off into the gloom.

The path grew darker the farther in we went, the tangled mass all around us grew thicker. Before long we had to cast magic on our eyes to see in the emptiness before us. Hermione's shined in the darkness, two amber pin pricks of light. The air in the tangled tunnels was thick with dust; dirt and dried muck covered every surface and I had to stop myself from coughing every other minute. Nothing was fresh, the crawling branches underfoot cracked with dryness, and the very air felt stale and dead.

"What would choose such a place as their home? Animals usually keep their dens cleaner than this." Hermione scowled as she side stepped a heap of droppings that lay in the center of the tunnel.

"Its hard to tell love, maybe they have inherent magic that keeps them clean? So the filth wouldn't bother them. That and a predator would be less likely to follow them into such a place."

Both of us stopped, frozen as a rasping crunch caught our attention. The noise ceased for a moment before starting up again. Then another pause, as if something heavy was being dragged down the tunnel, and whoever was doing the pulling had to take a break every few feet.

Hermione and I shared a look of caution. Our senses detected a clump of life force a bit brighter than the plant we were tangled within. The irregular feel of it usually indicated several smaller forms bunched together, perhaps we'd finally found them.

Hermione and I tensed, ready to attack. The tunnel in front us had a rough split, one path was smaller and headed upward slightly, the other was wider, and headed downward. Either path was going roughly toward that distant ping of our magic.

Hermione nodded her consent, we would take the larger path, where the life force was coming from. Time for a little payback. The dirt muffled out steps plenty and we darted down the path, picking and choosing our footing against the uneven floor.

A bend in the path, a sharp turn that nearly doubled back on itself lay just ahead; along with the thieves. We jumped around the corner, magic flaring in our hands, eyes glowing with power, only to come up short at the grotesque sight in front of us.

4.

A plump sack made of flesh and feelers blocked the path. There were no eyes, just two fat glistening flaps of skin on its head, along with a gaping hole ringed with shark like teeth. Two stunted legs could be seen poking out from under the horrific mass. Dozens of spider like legs protruded from its back and sides. The two flaps of skin parted and two pink nodes, slimy and pulsing, extended and began waving in the air.

Hermione and I stood dumb founded at the sight. Those waving nodes shook in our direction before sucking back inside, the veiny stalks they sat on crumpling back into the head and the skin flaps closed with a slight sucking sound. It lunged forward, propelled by its dozens of tiny legs.

Its body slid and moved, gliding along the uneven tunnel with little problem. Despite its ungainly size it was fast. Within seconds it was right before us. I threw out a burst of fire, which seemed to do little more than dry it out. It gave a guttural choking noise, almost like a cough that echoed strangely. Any sound we had made was muffled, but this monster was loud. Hermione doused it with water and I fried it with lightning.

It shivered and shuddered, still making that coughing sound, before it gave out and died, sagging inward toward the floor. The sight of it surprised us more than anything. "Beautiful or horrific, there's no in between here."

I nodded at Hermione's words, Faye had given me similar thoughts of my own. Slide thunk, slide thunk. I swore under my breath, now the sound was coming from both directions, at least two more of the creatures were coming.

"Sounds like he was calling his buddies to come help."

"Or ringing the dinner bell, perhaps this thing hides here and feeds off those thieving blue bastards. Some places on Earth had predator and prey living in the same burrow, prairie dogs and ferrets for example."

I marveled at Mione's endless wealth of facts, and the impressive swearing. Even though she'd lived two centuries or more now, it wasn't a habit she'd ever indulged in much.

"Lets go back and take the other tunnel, perhaps we can avoid filling this place with corpses." Plus the smell of the thing's dead body was worse than its appearance.

We back tracked a ways and took the narrower tunnel, sliding in the gap. My back and chest brushed either side of the narrow knobby tunnel for nearly thirty feet before it opened up more, allowing us to walk side by side again.

We had only been walking for a few minutes, that sliding thunk following us all the way, when we heard the twisting crack of dried branches breaking. They were trying to follow us down the narrow pathway. The crunching and cracking continued as we walked. Hermione and I laid down numerous wards behind us, flashes of lights, the smell of predators and loud crashing were used for the most part. I had no quarrel with those fucking flesh tubes, but it didn't stop me from setting a trap of lighting behind us as we came to another turn in the path.

The tunnel opened into another room with many branching pathways. Faint beams of light had worked their way inside; the ceiling was thinner and taller here.

We were both having trouble navigating the mess, the faint magical energies seeping from this massive tangled plant made it difficult to gauge our progress. In the end we picked a smaller path, fresh droppings being our one clue that a thief had come this way.

As we moved onward I noticed their pungent scent growing stronger, fresher. Perhaps we were onto them now. Hermione fished water from a jug out of the pack she wore and took a few greedy mouthfuls before handing it to me. It was warm and humid within this mess of a den and I took it gratefully.

I could make little sense of the pathways themselves, they confused my senses, but a distinct faded spot up ahead led me to believe we were approaching another open chamber. My hunch was correct, but I wish i'd been wrong.

"And we thought they were filthy, perhaps a few bad eggs is muddling our opinion?" I don't know where Hermione found the breath to speak. The large chamber, biggest we'd seen so far, was divided roughly in half, with a slimy path running down the middle. To our left were festering mounds of scat. Some of the piles were twice my height, and it even looked as if others had grown taller and toppled over in the past. The floor was soupy with the fetid mess. I heard the buzzing of insects and my extended senses detected thousands of tiny lives, living breeding and dying in the gunk. I shuttered.

The other half of the room was filled with bones. Torn skin and bits of fur. The piles weren't as high, but they were numerous. The floor was covered in a scattering of bones and dried out flesh, I spied a few rotting corpses that could have possibly been Charyepchee. Maybe I should give Svenwhick a call when this was all over.

Unlike the other rooms we had encountered, this one only had the one other exit, or at least the only one not blocked with shit and corpses.

"Beautiful or horrific, there is no in between." Hermione nodded next to me, as solemn as I had seen her our entire time here. We hovered above the floor with magic, a few scant inches, neither one of us wanted to touch it.

5.

We were growing closer now, the pit of filth, I had no other name for the room we had exited, could not be far from their den. It would be impractical to go far to relieve themselves, or dispose of left overs.

As we suspected, it only took a few more minutes to find them. We had avoided casting light for this very reason. With magic to see in the dark, it wasn't necessary anyway.

They were sleeping when we found them. The chamber before us was different from the others, wider and taller, but with virtually no light seeping through from above. Dozens of small pockets had been torn or carved from the tangles, in each of them sat one or two thieves. The center of the chamber was filled with water. A spring of some kind that glowed with a faint blue light was supplying the water, causing gurgling faded shadows in the dim light. All around the pool, were hundreds of scattered objects. Some of them looked like ancient relics, perhaps from before the fall of the Charyepchee. Others looked simple, stone and wooden tools, along with strange plants, and more bones. Every one of those objects, hummed faintly with magic.

I could feel them in the room with us now, our artifacts. I had an inkling as to what happened now. "Seems to me, they're attracted to things with magical auras. Or at least, maybe objects with unique signatures. It would explain this mess heaped about, and why they were so hell bent on retrieving them." I spoke with barely a whisper, not wanting to wake the little bastards.

Hermione only nodded, remaining silent at the sight before her. The next step would be delicate, we needed to retrieve our things, without waking them. We could think of an appropriate punishment afterward.

I hesitated to cast magic, not knowing if the flare in power would wake them. Ultimately we decided against it, it would be hard to retrieve our things while fighting off a horde of blue monkeys. They were a bit bigger than I expected, and up close they resembled spider monkeys the most, even though that was a poor description of them.

Slowly we divided up and began picking through the room. The most important objects, the one's most difficult to replicate, were the power matrixes. Similar in some ways to a ward stone these… magical batteries for a lack of a better word were made a bit differently. The were made of metal, mostly nickel and lacking in any iron to speak of, shaped like a cube and covered in spiraling rune patterns. Unlike a ward stone, they were designed to absorb and release ambient magic quickly. It was a work around to the traditional ward stone design, those would burn out if too much power entered or left them quickly.

Finding our artifacts wasn't the difficult part. The problem arose at being quiet, even though these were some of the more recent objects stolen, some of them had ended up buried in the refuse. It took time, far longer than we wanted to spend on it, to dig them out quietly enough to avoid waking the thieves.

Finally, after an hour of hunting and searching, we'd collected everything taken. Hermione and I had placed them within our ever present packs and began moving toward one another. We were on opposite sides of the room when it happened. I don't know if it was one of us, not careful enough at picking through the piles, or if fate herself decided to step in and give us some excitement, but one of the tallest piles, teetered and fell.

The crash was loud, it echoed around the room, much louder than any noise we'd made so far. I stood stock still, I could see Hermione frozen in place from across the room, a wince on her face.

Most of them didn't seem disturbed by the noise. Maybe they were used to it, I doubt this was the first time such an avalanche had fallen. I held my breath and tried to look everywhere all at once.

They seemed to all be sleeping still… except for one. I watched as it rolled and stretched in its nest before it stood up, legs curled beneath it with both hands bunched into a fist. It looked about the room, blurry eyed, and scanned for what made the noise.

Its eyes roamed over Hermione, missing her completely. I stood as its eyes, all four of them passed over me, maybe it didn't notice?

I spoke too soon. The little thief did a double take, staring right at me. Those eyes of it snapped awake, and it let loose with a terrible high pitched squawk. That got the others attention. "Fuck."

The first awake made a beeline for me, screeching with gnashing teeth. The others soon followed. A few of them noticed Hermione now, and at least a hundred of them were converging on her position. The time for quiet secrecy was over.

With a roar of power I sent out a wave of fire, intent on burning several of them to a crisp. It didn't work. The thieves flung themselves through the fire, without a single singe. I backed up, trying to give myself room to work, and nearly fell into the mess of strange objects.

A curse, one of the traditional ones that didn't count as a spell left my lips as I cast bolts of lightning at them. The jerky lines of energy danced across their skins, but much like the fire it did no good. They simply ignored it. I looked at Hermione casting spell after spell but nothing worked. I punched the closest monkey creature and sent it sprawling. Hermione was backed into a corner, a tunnel behind her. She looked at me and grimaced. I nodded, we would meet up later. I felt a pang of worry fill my chest as I saw her turn and run down the nearest tunnel. I kicked another thief and turned myself. I could fight them physically, destroy any half dozen of them in seconds, but there were so many, it wouldn't take long for me to by buried in bodies. Superior, magically immune numbers would be difficult for even me.

With the tracking charm id placed on Hermione firmly in my mind, I fled back into the maze of twisted branches.

To be continued…

Since I feel so bad about being gone so long, here's another chapter of Future of Change. Expect another update this coming Monday. I'm gonna do my best to stick to a chapter a week from here on out folks, those that have followed me in the past know exactly how crazy my update "schedule" happens to be, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, and want more consistency, so I'm gonna try.

Cheers,

Harkon


	5. Twists and Turns

Here we go folks, chapter 5. Starting to get back into the swing of thingns, expect the next up date next Monday.

Twists and Turns

I ran as fast as I could down the winding uneven pathway. I could hear them, smell them right behind me. Their howls and squawks reverberated off the rough walls, regardless of how they muffled sound. The smell was putrid, wet fur, shit and decaying meat. For animals that looked lovely from a distance, they were nasty up close.

I came to a split in the path and had a thought. I stopped and tore a chunk of wood from the wall. I poured magic into it, pure and unfocused, causing the alien wood to glow faintly. I tossed my glowing stick down one path and then took the other. If they were attracted to magic like I thought, perhaps a few would be distracted by the feel of the glowing trinket.

I could feel Hermione far behind me and cursed under my breath, the next path I cam to I took a left and then another, at least getting me to point in her direction again.

I ran, still hearing them and smelling them, and cut down another path heading in the general direction I wanted to go. I was swarmed seconds later.

The little bastards knew these tunnels and I didn't. Some of them had broken away and gotten in front of me, pinning me in from both sides. One of the little bastards screeched, just ahead and sent what looked like a vine out of its hand at me. I felt it then, just for a moment. A quick flash of a magical signature before it blinked out again. I banished the vine out of my path, pleased that magic at least worked on the attack. Another flung dirt at me, trying to blind me. I blinked the dirt away as another flung itself into the air, intent on a direct attack.

Instinctively I pushed with my magic and to my great surprise it worked. Not as well as I hoped, but I did send the little bugger bouncing back down the earthen corridor. Two more leaped over its tumbling form and got at me. One bit my arm and I shook it off, sending a trail of blood with it. The second one I punched square in the face with my metal hand.

The thief's nose crumpled inward and it fell, still and dead. More vines were trying to ensnare me but I managed to get out of the way.

I was getting pissed now, the bite wound had filled itself with dirt and grit, some strange form of earthen magic the bastards possessed. I cleaned it with a spell and sent out a shockwave of energy at the group in front of me. They were pushed to either side of the tunnel, leaving a clear path down the center that I took advantage of.

Conventional magic didn't work on them, but I conjured a wall of stone between us, stopping their pursuit from that direction, and tore off after Hermione.

2.

"This is getting ridiculous." They just kept coming, down a dozen different pathways, the bastards just kept dogging me. They were almost like a mindless wave, a crowd of frothing crazy, hot on my heels. I decided to try something different; immune to magical fire they might be, but what would a natural fire do? A little known fact about the incendio spell, while it starts magical, anything actually caught on fire would burn with nature's flame. I cast the spell behind me setting the earthen tunnel on fire. The dry tangled branches caught in an instant and raged quickly. Smoke filled the tunnel and I poured on the speed, hell bent on getting to Hermione.

I raced down corridors, wanting to reach her as fast as possible. I blasted apart another fleshy blob creature and ran through its entrails, paying no mind to the gore, id been drenched in worse before. The screams of the thieves were growing fainter, the fire slowing them, forcing them to take different paths and back tracking. I trudged on in the gloom, my enhanced eyes seeing everything in the darkness; tinged with sparkling blue. I'd murder the whole nest if they'd hurt her.

My arm throbbed from the bite wound. No matter how many times I cleaned it out, it continued to fill with dirt and grime. Nasty bastards had some interesting earth based magic. I sent a patronus down ahead of me, hoping it would find Hermione and deliver a message. I wasn't blasting my way out of here without her. The two of us had come to an agreement on our way to Faye, in the depths of space. We both agreed we would try to integrate with this world. We didn't want to rule it, or bend it to our will, we wanted to become a part of it. We had hoped, with the experiments we'd performed on the colonists in unlocking their magic, thAt we may have eliminated squibs from history.

We wanted everyone to have access to magic, present and future alike. We succeeded in opening the magical channels in those that came with us, but couldn't guarantee all their descendants would be the same. I prayed for their sake they were, such a world, while beautiful, is becoming more dangerous the farther we explore. I don't know how a muggle would ever survive here. I was having a harder time living up to this ideal the longer we spent here. I was sorely tempted to stop and turn, and eviscerate them all. I wasn't sure, but I believe that a powerful enough show of magic would override any shielding they naturally possessed.

"Now now, you promised not to act like a psychopath on this world, lets try to keep that, at least for the first month." And now, on top of it, I was talking to myself, again. I shook my head and poured on the speed, we needed to find each other, and get out of here.

It took another ten minutes for the thieves to catch up to me again. I'd rounded a corner and could hear them hooting and howling on a passageway to my left. I couldn't sneak past them, it was like as soon as I got within a certain range they could feel me. I dodged more vines and tried setting the corridor on fire again. This time several of them poured dirt onto the flame smothering it. The dusty earth came from their palms materializing before them and coming out in concentrated bursts. The use of their magic filled the passage with dust and I slipped away in the mess.

It felt like Hermione was moving toward me, but it was frustratingly slow going. The pathways followed no logical plan, merely grew how they wished. I suspected this massive structure to be a single plant and that it would take ages to map the entire thing if I was so inclined. I wasn't.

Because of this, we were stuck winding our way through, slowly working closer together. I hoped she was alright. I could feel her stress and worry from here, but I don't think she's injured.

I looked down at my arm again and cleaned out the grit once more. The relief was sudden, but already more dirt was filling it up. I'd tried a few different spells attempting to dispel the effect. It felt like a curse, but primal, formed from an animal mind.

In frustration I let primordial magic flood my veins. The viridian light glowed around me and I poured magic into the wound. There was a burning sensation followed by a snapping sound, not quite heard with the ears, and the dirt and grime blew away for the final time. I sighed and closed the wound, leaving behind fresh skin.

My burst of power rallied the thieves. As if it doubled their speed, they seemed right behind me again, louder than ever. I took off once more, at least I knew I could rip them apart if I'd had to, not much stopped primordial magic. Bad Harry, no genocide. I shook my head and muttered under my breath as I sped up, letting magic push my body farther than just the muscles would allow.

She was a bright light in a glowing twisting hallway, and she wasn't as far now as she had been. I hoped Hermione was having better luck than I am. I hated this cursed place, everything looked the same; I could have been running down the same five passageways and wouldn't have known. I started another fire behind me, hoping to slow them down again, and burst into a large chamber. This space was nearly as big they're nesting room. I could hear liquid bubbling in the darkness, and a faint purple light came from the center.

It was another spring, similar to the one we'd seen earlier, but the magic felt… different. Almost as if the magic had a different charge or flavor, a negative reflection of the blue well. I moved across the room, careful to avoid the 'water.' It didn't feel dangerous exactly but I felt very wary of it all the same.

I chose the path closest to Hermione's signal and was about to enter when the thieves arrived in the room. They screeched and howled with rage, but refused to enter the room; interesting.

I pulled a few vials from my satchel and directed them over the pool with magic, keeping a close eye on the little blue bastards in the meantime. They screeched and howled but none entered. I floated the vials back over and placed them in my bag. They glowed a faint purple color.

I dashed down the corridor closest to Hermione, and I wondered; how long before they caught up this time? Adrenaline and magic pulsed through me, causing a throbbing ache to burn its way into my core. I set more fires behind me and plowed ahead, she was close now, I could feel her, almost hear her.

Then I heard them, the ones that must have been chasing her, close by. I turned another corner, and dead ahead, a hundred meters away, was Hermione. She was at a dead sprint, barreling in my direction. I couldn't see them behind her, but they were close. I poured on the speed and within seconds I had her in my arms. The two of us were dirty, sweating and breathing hard, but still alive.

I kissed her, quick and hard and looked her in the eye. "Are you alright?" My thumb brushed a drop of blood from her cheek, dripping from a shallow cut.

She nodded, seemingly relieved to be together again. "Ive been having trouble, I either have too little power, or too much. A fraction past the point their shields can take is enough to flat out kill them."

"Yeah, I've been having trouble following the genocide rule."

She chuckled mirthlessly. "Behave Harry. Now we've got to get out of here, and they're closing in from both sides, any ideas?"

"I will note my previous point about the genocide rule."

She rolled her eyes at me and we hurried down a narrower path off to the side. We had to squeeze in, the walls touching our chests and backs, Hermione was having a bit more trouble than I was.

The tunnel gradually opened up into a small chamber, with three branching paths. Id been sensing the magic of this giant root structure for hours now, but could still make little sense of it, it was just too… alien.

"Lets take the center path, it feels like it heads upward. We can get near the top and blast our way out if we have to." I nodded, was better than anything i'd come up with.

Before we left, I told Hermione my hunch about distracting the little bastards. We both found suitable sticks and pumped them full of raw magic, causing a fain glow. We threw them down the tunnels we weren't taking and headed down the middle.

3.

We tried suppressing our magical signatures. It didn't work. We tried concealing charms, magic to make us invisible and silent, we even tried our animagi forms. Nothing worked.

No matter what we did, we were chased with dogged determination. Our decoys worked for a few moments only. Instead of scaring them, our wolf selves only seemed to excite them. I wondered briefly if they'd debate over which one of us tasted better. Strange thought but I'm prone to those from time to time.

We were both tired of running, but would we disobey? Those rules we sat ourselves when we went on this insane adventure, Endlessly debated over the course of centuries of space travel.

I glanced at Hermione, and noticed the grin on her face, she was enjoying this, actually having fun.

I laughed, I'd definitely rubbed off on her.

"Nothing like a life threatening situation to get the blood pumping."

"Really puts a spring in your step, doesn't it?" The joviality of the situation quickly faded, our decoys had failed again, we could hear them.

I caught a flash of purple up ahead, just for the briefest of moments before whatever it was disappeared around another bend in tangled mess. Some other beastie roaming the halls I'm sure.

We took another turn, narrow passage again and headed upward at a sharp angle. Scattered beams of light snaked through in places. We were getting closer to the edge, the weaved roots and tangled branches were thinning now.

Up ahead we saw another flash of purple, just around the bend. I noticed when we reached the spot Hermione turned to follow it.

"So who's your friend we've been following?"

A small smirk danced at the corners of her lips. "Noticed did you?"

"Indeed I did my dear, let a fella in on the secret?"

She shrugged, blushing faintly. "Once we were separated, I noticed it was staying in front of me. At first I thought it was a scout, telling the others where I was, but as I followed I noticed it seemed to be leading me away from them instead, so I just decided to follow it." I could hear the shrug in her voice.

"That sounds like one of my plans, stumble around blind til I get lucky."

She laughed, "seems to be working so far."

It was my turn to shrug, who could argue with that logic? I just hoped it was leading us out, and not deeper. Our journey took on a quiet tone for a while then. We could still hear the thieves, behind us always, but there was distance now, it didn't feel as if they were on our heels anymore.

I never managed a good look at our guide, just a hand here or there, or a swish of the tail. It seemed remarkably similar to the thieves, other than the color palette.

For two earth hours we trailed behind it, following its meandering path. The little blue assholes were never very far, there were moments where I thought we'd run directly into them, but we never actually crossed paths.

I offered Hermione a bite to eat from my bag. It was dried meat, something we picked up from the Charyepchee village. They kept these huge land crabs as livestock, using them for food, work, and transportation. Closest way to describe its flavor is like a spicy lobster jerky.

She handed me her canteen, and I took a thankful swig as she quickly ate the little morsel. Neither one of us had stopped moving, and had been on our feet running and fighting most of the day. My magic reserves were as high as always, but it didn't stop me from wanting a nap.

We carried on for some time, hearing our pursuers, and following that strange bit of purple I would catch out of the corner of my eye. It was hard to tell the passage of time within the tangled mess, but I would think several more hours passed without much incident. Whoever Hermione had managed to befriend certainly knew their way around.

"I wonder how many exits this place has? We only saw one coming in, but given the nature of this…plant, there has to be more."

"I think we're just in too deep, somewhere in the middle now. We've spent the better part of the day in here, the last bit of sunlight I spotted was orange in color, I think its close to dusk."

The two of us had been following Mione's 'guide' for a while now, but I hadn't seen it for several minutes. It was the longest stretch we went without a glimpse since we started. And the howling was getting louder again.

Something within the mess… changed. It was subtle at first, but grew more pronounced as we walked. The roots and branches all meshed together weren't dry anymore. They had become moist and slippery, it was difficult to tell exactly when it began, since the effect was so subtle. It was darker too, the tangles gradually taking on a dark green color over the dried brown look.

And the smell, always with the damn smell. The earlier tunnels were dusty, and had a slight body odor smell to them. These… fresher passageways smelled like rotting fruit, on the cusp of being fermented.

The air seemed free of dust, but it was heavier, thick with the smell of rot, almost like it had become semi soupy. Green wisps drifted in the air and I tried my damndest not to breath any of it in.

The walls almost seemed to breath, as if they were pulsing slightly, and it wasn't nearly as quiet now. We'd been hearing our pursuers for hours, but beyond their distant shrieks and hoots the tunnels had been quiet. Now, we could hear the clatter of tiny legs, scratching and scuffling sounds of tiny claws on wood. I could see… things moving in the darkness around us. They always fled before we could get a good look, but I saw shadows from the size of rats, up to small dogs darting away in the gloom.

"Its almost like we're on another world… well a different other world at least."

I grinned at Hermione's words. "We've explored very little of our new home, maybe more of it is like this than we think."

Hermione shuddered at the thought. My wife was incredibly powerful, but still preferred cute and cuddly to tentacled monstrosities. I did too for that matter.

"Let's hope not, for the colonists' sake."

I shrugged, those people had all lived difficult, dangerous lives before, on a dying world. This planet felt so alive it was almost breathing, and it felt… younger somehow, untamed in any real way. I again wondered how the Charyepchee managed to civilize this wild west of a world, even if it had only been for a short time. I feared we would fail, and hoped we would thrive.

"Earth was a dangerous place, a different kind of wild in its old days, than this world. The danger is different, but humans have always had a way of adapting." I grinned at her. She rolled her eyes but smiled indulgently.

"I hope so."

"That's all we can do love."

4.

I think Hermione regretted her choice. Our 'guide' for lack of a better term, had vanished. And they were growing close now.

The tunnels were wet and slimy, smelling vaguely of rotten fruit. The thickness of the air coated our skins and made our lungs itch, we were as filthy as we could be. Blood, sweat, and, grime covered us from head to toe, and something ahead of us was breathing. A deep rhythmic rumble filled the passage, and if I stood perfectly still, I could feel a slight wind, if it was breathing, it was massive. I couldn't begin to understand how something with such powerful lungs could even fit in here, its not like the tunnels were wide or even.

Hermione grew quiet the farther we walked. The unease and tension floated in the air around, thick enough to almost cut.

"I'm sorry." Her words came out as a bare whisper, a bit of tremble in her voice.

"Don't be love, we've been in worse spots." I tried for a reassuring smile, but I don't know how successful I was. I've seen some truly horrific acts in my long fractured life. Atrocious acts committed by monsters and mad men alike, and even I was creeped out a bit.

"I shouldn't have followed it, I don't know what I was thinking, seemed to leading me toward you and away from danger, but now I think it was luring us deeper, toward something worse."

"Remember Mione, we can take anything we find in these tunnels, strange as Faye is proving to be, we haven't found a thing that could truly match us, not if we're actually trying."

She nodded hesitantly, and I had to remind myself, she hadn't spent millenniums fighting the dark, that for all the years shes lived now, most of them were peaceful in comparison to my own.

"I'm glad at least one of us is confident."

I smiled. "We've tracked and killed dark lords, trapped an ancient evil in the realm of the faye, built a ship to escape a dying planet, and discovered the secrets of unlocking magic within muggles, we can handle this Hermione."

She nodded, a bit more confidently now, and grasped my hand, interlocking our fingers. I squeezed them gently and brought her filthy hand up to kiss her knuckles.

She made a face. "Ew Harry." But her smile changed into a small grin, and I felt a tiny victory was won in self confidence.

Our gloomy surroundings were widening now, the scurrying shadows growing fewer. Perhaps they were fewer, or maybe they were only hiding better now. The howls behind us were louder, those hunting us growing closer and we picked up the pace.

Before us the tunnel abruptly ended and widened into a large foul smelling chamber. There was something sleeping on the other end. I could just make out the basic shape in the gloom, enchanted our eyes might have been, but even that only let us break through the darkness to a degree.

It was massive, something large and lumpy that ungulated irregularly. There were… other things crawling around it; vague shapes thumping and dragging themselves around the mass. We stood stock still, frozen between shock and disgust. The mass gave a particularly large tremor and a wet plopping sound could be heard, along with excited chittering.

We crouched instinctively and held still. Perhaps another minute passed before the tremor happened again, and was followed by the same sounds. I had a terrible feeling I knew what we were looking at.

"It's a hive, with the queen in the center." Leave it to Hermione to just go and voice my fears out loud.

I nodded, not wanting to talk. On Earth, hives and queens only appeared in the insect kingdom, but I don't think these were over grown bugs. Not at all.

The howling kept growing behind us, and the sound was agitating whatever was in front. We were pinched in, and it was only going to become a tighter squeeze. I had no idea if the thieves ever ventured this far into their own nest, but I had a feeling the answer was no. We agreed moving around the edge of the chamber would be much better than standing right at the entrance, and moved off to the right. Hermione and I stuck close to the wall, and closer to each other. Whatever ended up happening, we weren't going to be separated again.

The first dozen of so dashed into the chamber, sliding to a stop near the entrance. They were manic, breath coming in quick chuffs, brown muddy sparks flickered over them, and they seemed bigger somehow. The blue bastards scanned the room quickly, luminescent eyes flickered almost like they were in the throes of a group seizure. They slid right past the undulating masses in the darkness and spied us.

With a roar, the biggest of the lot pointed at us and charged. I wasn't playing this time, rules or not I was angry over this ridiculous venture. With a surge of primordial power, forged in the moments of creation, I exploded in viridian light. Green flames licked at my skin as I let my true power loose.

"Harry…"

"I'll be gentle."

The thieves screeched at the light as the chamber was illuminated with dancing shadows. Vines shot at me, but burned in contact with my aura. Every bit of trickery they had failed, I was Faye's apex predator now, and they would learn to fear me. Beside me, Hermione's own power rushed forth, surrounding her in honey colored energy.

They attacked her next, only to fail once more. Several leaped at me and I caught them out of the air with pure power. A subtle flick sent them flying toward the creatures on the far side of the chamber. This is where the flesh beasts were born, the strange ugly masses that had chased us briefly through the tunnels. Several of the thieves were snatched out of the air and swallowed hole.

The blubbery monstrosities drug and flung themselves across the chamber, moving far faster than they had any right to. Some came for us, but most headed for the interlopers, those responsible for this mess to begin with.

I curbed the long buried urge to kill and instead flung them away, or held them to the floor with bands of green magic. Nothing I did deterred them, there was no fear that I could see on their faces, just fanatical lust, a desire to possess and destroy.

Hermione was keeping the flesh beasts away from us, the scowl marring her features expressed her disgust more than any words could. The honey colored light shining from her helped calm my raging mood some, what were we to do now?

The queen stirred then, I felt it more than saw at first. Like everything we'd seen so far on Faye, it had magic coming off it in waves, but was subtle, sleeping almost. But no longer

It gave out a guttural, chittering noise and stood. From beneath its mass, bone like feelers and appendages lifted the beast from the chamber floor. There was a tearing sound as half of its length ripped away and flopped to the floor, several half formed flesh beasts fell from the ragged opening. Viscera and dribbles of dark brown blood trailed behind the queen as it stood on the creeping appendages. Its legs were massive compared to those of the brood, thick and strong instead of atrophied in appearance. It lumbered forward a few steps, as if remembering how to walk, before dashing forward, right toward us.

"Son of a bitch!" I turned, keeping my power flow toward the thieves to hold them back, and with my metal hand, sent a bolt of viridian lightning into the queen's face, if you could call the gaping hole and wriggling feelers a face. It stumbled but barely slowed, if anything it seemed to move faster. Hermione sent her own bolt of power but it wasn't any more effective than my own attack. I jumped into the air as it barreled down on me, angrier for the initial attack I suppose, and flipped over its back, hovering above it for a moment before allowing myself to fall back to the ground.

I nearly clipped my head on the ceiling from that little stunt, it was so massive i'd had little room. It had missed Hermione completely and instead turned its attention to the thieves. I watch with morbid amusement as it plowed into a group of them, sending them flinging into the air.

More of the interlopers leapt at it, climbing and scrambling over its back, their lust for our magic momentarily forgotten. Hermione was gesturing toward me frantically and I ran to her side. Once I caught up she took off at a dead run, aiming for the back of the nest. Flesh beasts and thieves collided all around us as we moved through the room, we used magic to push them out of the way, or smash a few of them together to clear a path.

I saw it then, a small tunnel that seemed to spiral upward at a steep angle, with a purple figure standing at the mouth, waving urgently.

A scowl crossed my face and I thought about zapping it with a little bolt but resisted the urge. Once it saw us heading its way it turned and ran up the tunnel on all fours. Hermione darted inside and I was right behind her. Some of our pursuers had noticed and broke off from the main fighting, to chase after us. The tunnel was slippery at the base, but grew dryer the higher we went. In the distance ahead I could see a faint glow; moonlight.

Our purple tour guide darted out of the entrance, Hermione and I right behind it. As soon as I cleared the entrance it darted behind me to the hole. I kept a wary eye on it as I watched what it did.

It scooped up some of the dust from the top of the tangled briars we stood on and began grunting and chuffing rhythmically. My eyes widened as I felt its magic, different from the blues. This was almost a spell, I was watching an animal perform an actual spell. With the last of the grunts, a small spark of purple energy leapt from its hand into the dirt, and it sprinkled it over the entrance. Tangles and muck filled in the hole rapidly ad the dust settled, making the area indistinguishable from any other spot.

Our guide swayed slightly, weakened by that bit of concentrated magic, before pitching over sideways and collapsing. I felt a jolt of surprise at this, had it passed out? I knelt down next to the little creature and examined it closely for the first time. Hermione hadn't wasted a moment, and scanned the creature with magic.

It was smaller than the blues, and had two sets of arms and a pair of legs while the blues only had one set. Smaller thinner arms grew beneath the larger pair and were angled inward more. A double set of closed eyes sat on its face and it had three nostrils, two between the lower larger eyes, and one above them, between the smaller eyes.

I noticed it seemed thin, it was hard to tell, given the alien origins of the creature but I'd say it hadn't eaten properly in some time. There were random patches of exposed shimmering skin beneath that was a darker purple than the fur like bristles that covered most of its body. I couldn't distinguish any sexual organs, it was hard to tell how the little alien reproduced, but my probing magic told me he was a boy, fairly young too.

"Severe malnourishment, several structures within the body that the spells identify as bone like appear cracked, with one support structure in the chest completely broken, no detectable heart beat, but further magic shows that this little guy doesn't have a heart thats anything close to ours. The magic is having trouble translating cross species like this. I just realized I'm going to have to create an entire branch of magic dealing with alien organisms." Instead of sounding daunted by such a huge project, Mione seemed excited at the idea. Of course she was.

"It's a boy." My contribution sounded lame in comparison and got me chuckling slightly.

She nodded, "magic says so, don't know how we'd tell otherwise."

I sighed and sat down next to the little critter, letting the last of my primordial magic fade from my veins, sleeping until I needed it again.

"Im proud of you Harry, you didn't atomize the lot of them."

I laughed again, "even an old dog can learn a new trick or two love." She leaned over and kissed me, I returned it with gusto. The goofy grin on my face had her laughing now.

"Over two hundred years now Mr. Potter, and I still curl your toes?"

"Always dear, you curl more than that." I paused, that didn't sound right. "That came out wrong."

She laughed at me then, "its my fault, hard to function with so little blood in your head?"

"Precisely."

I looked down at our little guide, he might not have taken us on the safest route, but he did find us a path that prevented the destruction of a small ecosystem. I glanced up at a few wisps of smoke in the distance, well most of it at any rate. Those fires would peter out eventually… probably. I had a hard time feeling guilty for that.

Hermione was rifling through her battered leather messenger back. "Still have everything love?" I had just checked myself and was glad to see that I hadn't lost anything. She nodded and closed the bag sitting down next to me and leaning against my side. First chance we got we were dunking ourselves and washing this grime off.

She was looking at our small purple friend, frowning slightly. "What do we do with him? Im afraid he's too weak now, with the shape he's in and the magic he just used."

I shrugged and smiled. "Take him with us of course, the little booger "saved our lives" after all." Hermione sat up, a small spark of excitement in her eyes.

"Really?"

I nodded, "if its okay with you, can't just leave him passed out in the dirt after all."

She hugged me, muttering something to herself about always wanting a pet monkey.

I laughed back quietly and held her close. We stayed that way for a few minutes before I let a sigh escape my lips and stood, pulling her to my feet with me. "Come on love, we have a mess to clean up back at the ship, and repairs to make, and now a new friend to nurse back to health."

She nodded, picked up little purple with a flick of her fingers, setting him to bob behind us, as we made our way home, and the two of us started off, under the bright shine of two full moons.


	6. Into the Wild Rainbow Yonder

I sat watching them in a rocky out crop. I found their family dynamics fascinating. Creatures like this on Earth weren't known to be particularly friendly, even to offspring, but Faye was surprising me more everyday.

A group of what Hermione and I had come to call skuttlers were below me. We had seen one of the beasts, an old sickly one, attack a group of rodlings several weeks back, and we had even engaged it briefly in combat before it fled.

We believed them to be solitary creatures at the time, but we had been wrong. As Mione and me explored further out from our drop ship, we'd come across a nest of them near the edge of Faye's belt like mountain range. The forest had faded out several miles from the edge of the steep incline, to be replaced with sparking grass and large clusters of boulders and rocks.

Several huge rocks had been pushed together to form a rough circle two stories tall. Sparking grass lay flattened and dead inside, used as a rudimentary floor. I happened to be hiding up on the rock wall, a hundred or so feet above the ground. The bottom of the mountain range was nearly sheer for a mile straight up, before it plateaued. From there it gradually sloped upward before becoming a proper range of mountains. We hadn't been in the mountains yet, Hermione believed that the ecosystems would be entirely different, and I agreed with her. It was hard to tell what we would find, but I knew for a fact that flying masses of fire and horror nested there. That thing that had nearly eaten us on our initial approach to the planet had flown into those mountains, and we'd seen glimpses of others since then.

I was getting distracted, needed to see if my experiment was working yet. The animal life of Faye seemed particularly resistant to traditional wards, so I'd set about finding something that was more effective.

We'd come across this nest a little over a week ago and I'd been coming back every day to try something new, some way to keep them contained, I knew for a fact they could walk right through traditional wards, if an old sick one had managed, then I had no doubt the younger, healthier ones could as well.

Instead of a wall or bubble like a regular ward, I'd woven this ward into the currents of magic that constantly shifted about Faye. If I looked at the magic, my own was like thick bands of stormy power weaving in and out of the brighter natural colors, almost like a quilt of energy.

I'd tried other things already, some with limited success, others a complete failure. This time I'd taken the time to return to Svenwhick's village and studied their own wards. Mine was similar in design, if not a bit cruder. I honestly had little experience with using magic in this particular fashion. It was refreshing to learn something new and unique.

What I'd set up was simple. A mesh of intent woven into the world's magic, its only goal was to stop whatever came to it. I could add defensive and offensive measures later. My net encircled the skuttlers' nest about a hundred feet out from it. If it worked, they wouldn't be able to pass through it into the wider world.

The large spider like creatures were clicking their mandibles at each other, tentacles waving in a rudimentary form of communication. I recognized it as a signal to go hunting. While not true language, the gesture was plenty enough to get the point across, some of them were hungry, and heading out to get food.

I'd asked the Charyepchee about how smart they were, and was assured that they were just animals. Slightly higher in the smarts department than average; but they wouldn't be using tools anytime this eon.

I watched with bated breath as they approached my net. The first one out of the nest, a large male, I think, nearing maturity came to it first and walked straight into it. He bounced off. I watched the net flex slightly at the contact before bouncing back into position. I grinned.

He tried several more times, reaching out with a spider like leg and scratch at the barrier. The others tried as well, pushing at different spots and then all together in one place. Nothing worked.

"Finally." I watched them try for a few more minutes, just to be safe, before I dispelled the magic, letting them go off in search of food.

"Can't wait to tell Hermione."

I turned invisible with a little magic and hopped off the ledge, catching myself with a cushioning charm as I landed, time to head home.

Once I made it out of their territory I dropped the invisibility and shifted into a wolf and I was off. The journey was mostly peaceful, a small pack of bristle backs came in on both sides and ran with me. This particular bunch was different from the first group we encountered. They were nearly the size of horses, but I was bigger.

They'd tried to eat me the first time I'd come through this patch of grassland as a wolf. a Few good snaps, and a zap of lightning from my eyes, one of the few bits of magic I could do as an animal, put them in their places.

Now they ran with me, jumping in and out of the streams of magic in the air. It was a neat trick that vaguely reminded me of combat apparation. I wondered if I could mimic it somehow? When I reached the edge of their territory, about a half mile into the edge of a forest of singing trees, they peeled off to hunt. I carried on, enjoying the warm air rustling my fur.

I could smell Hermione now, no doubt going about her business at camp. I changed back into my true shape as I neared the edge of our clearing. The run had got my blood pumping and breathing hard, but a grin was splitting my face, I loved being a wolf. She was working outside at the moment and I snuck up quietly behind her. She was facing a table, examining a bottle of spongy blue not-liquid she held in one hand as she took notes with the other, not even looking at the page. It was a neat trick I never managed to grasp. I wrapped my arms around her, planting a kiss on her neck. The notes stopped and she leaned back against me, sighing softly at the contact.

I kissed her ear and whispered to her, "it worked this time love."

She spun slowly, never leaving my arms, and kissed me deeply. I could feel the grin on her lips and a fluttering in my heart sent the best kind of lightning down to my toes.

"Fantastic." It came out a whispered purr. Her hands roamed down my chest and stomach as mine moved lower down her back. The heated situation was about to become absolutely boiling, when something light and furry landed on my shoulder. Hermione giggled. And I sighed, I'd get the little fur-ball for that one. Within seconds I felt tiny delicate fingers picking through my hair accompanied with a soft hooting.

"Hello violet." Hermione giggled again and leaned back, still in my arms but wanting to get a better look at what was happening.

"Aww, Harry he missed you!" I looked up to see the simian face of our newest companion and gave him a mock glare. The little bugger gave me a wide smile, showing off more teeth than should have been possible.

After "rescuing" us and nearly dying for the effort it caused, we couldn't very well leave him behind. The little guy had been scared at first, waking up in a small cozy bed we'd conjured for him, but it hadn't taken long before he was attached to Hermione's hip, which of course meant he was attached to mine too.

I'd contacted Svenwhick the day after our little adventure to let him know of the dead Charyepchee we'd found, and the circumstances surrounding it. He was thankful for the heads up and gave me more information on the thieves. His people called them the Ehch'tiree, which meant 'mischief makers.'

I'd introduced him to Violet over the mirror and he'd been shocked. "That is an Ehch'tinche, a mischief amender if you will, we'd thought them all gone."

He told me they'd been one species once upon a time but something had created a shift in their genes; causing them to split into two distinct groups. Not his words exactly but that was the gist of it. The two were still sexually compatible, but had polar opposite natures, so such couplings were phenomenally rare. He had only seen one hybrid as a very young boy, and a Ehch'tinche hadn't been seen at all in almost two decades.

I reached up and ruffled Violet's head, grinning at the quiet chiffing noise he made at the gesture, he liked it. Violet settled down on my shoulders, intent on stopping my wife and I from continuing our shenanigans. Hermione winked at me at the look I must have been giving off. "Later lover boy." She kissed me one last time and stepped back a little. She was in learning mode now and wanted to here about my success.

"The weaving worked, you were right Mione. Even though our magic feels a bit different, the two played together like the best of friends. The lattice work and streamers I was able to slide in held firm, using the natural magic in the air as a net. It's a bit more flexible than an Earth ward, but it didn't let the skuttlers through. I dropped it after allowing them to test it for me."

She let out a breath of relief. We'd both been sticking close to the ship since our little altercation with the ehch'tiree. The little blue bastards had left us alone so far, it had been nearly a month since we raided their nest and took back our property; but it didn't mean they wouldn't try. I knew Hermione was itching to go and explore. We'd only covered a few square miles, with a couple of branching paths, and she wanted the better part of the continent mostly mapped before we even considered waking the colonists. It was shaping up to be a very busy year.

We headed to the edge of our clearing and I walked her through the process. I figured it out and had tested it and she wanted to learn, so this was the best way.

"You know I don't do well with technical jargon, so i'll be brief. Feel for the magic in the air, and snag ahold of it, right where one color shifts into another. From there its simple, push your magic into the center of the change until it pops out the other side. Do this as best you can until we have something of a quilt. Make sure you weave your intent into it as well, it fairly easy really. Once you get those first few loops, our magic will mesh with Faye's." She nodded and went to work. I watched for a few moments, grinning at how quickly she got the knack for it, before starting on the other side. It took us perhaps an hour to make our way back around and close the net. My viridian magic mingled with Hermione's honey colored glow. They were old friends, lovers in fact and had no problem with this. The rainbow like magic of Faye latched on like an eager puppy, blending all three together neatly.

The two of us stood back and admired our handy work. Violet hopped down, he'd been sitting on Mione's shoulder this time, and poked at the net. It resisted for a moment before letting him through. We'd made sure to include him in the design of course. It would have been cruel to leave him behind all alone.

2.

The ship had been repaired some time ago, our outside work area was clean and tidy. With a flick of her wrist, the ship's door slid shut silently and locked tight, we'd learned our lesson from last time. Hermione was gorgeous, in breathable tan clothes fit for a jungle explorer, battered pack in place, expanded and stuffed with supplies. I was dressed similarly, long pants and rolled up sleeves with heavy boots, my own pack filled to the brim, including out little wizard's tent. I gave the ship a final fond look and the two of us turned to march to the edge of the clearing, Violet bobbing and bouncing between us.

We reached our newly constructed ward and stepped through. It was an odd feeling, like thick cobweb in the air, but instead of breaking when we went through, it molded around us and melded back together as we went.

This little venture had one real goal in mind; find a proper site for a colony. Altogether we'd spent the equivalent of two Earth months on Faye; and had barely scratched the surface of discovery. The two of us had only discovered a few distinct biomes, mostly forests and grasslands, but we wanted something proper for a colony now. Perhaps a plateau, or an open plain. We weren't sure exactly yet, but were determined to find it.

"So we agree then? Head for the mountains, and start by walking the plateau base?"

I nodded grinning. "We're gonna want to head northwest for a bit first, avoid that skuttler nest. Once we get passed their territory we can make a beeline for the ridge line and head along it."

Hermione smiled. "I don't know if ridge line is the right way to put it Harry, ridge is a narrow hill or mountaintop after all."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Considering it's the only mountain range we saw from space, and wraps all around the planet like a crooked belt, I'd say its narrow… in comparison."

She laughed and pulled out my magic drawn map; I was pants at drawing the old fashion way. It had two stars on it, one marked as Svenwhick's village, another saying "Landfall" where we'd first sat down our ship. She now wrote "The Ridgeline" across the closest border of that strange mountain range. "The Ridgeline it is."

I laughed, I didn't want to burst her bubble, the Charyepchee probably already had a name for the place, but I guess that's what us humans would end up calling it. I had a stray thought, maybe I should be naming more stuff, Landfall and Ridgeline weren't exactly original, I shrugged.

The day was hot and humid and beautiful. I wondered at the suns in the sky, how strangely they seemed to crawl across it, and figured that it wasn't the sun's moving oddly, but probably the planet. Much like a wizarding house, the entire world was built in a strange way, and only made the barest sense if you tilted your head and squinted real hard. With magic anything was possible, and it wouldn't surprise me if it reversed its path through space a few times a day, or changed its rotation when it felt like it.

The very nature of magic made such things possible, a mundane world would be ripped apart at the titanic forces involved in changing something so large so quickly. But here? Narry an earthquake… fayequake? That actually didn't sound so bad.

The cooling charms woven into our clothes kept us fresh and eager to continue. We stopped briefly for a quick lunch in a field of ferns. I don't know if it was our magical bellies that let us adjust to Faye's numerous food sources, or if the planet was just naturally friendly that way, but I wasn't about to complain.

Hermione had copied a recipe from the Charyepchee to create something akin to bread, it was cinnamon colored and tasted like sunshine and cucumbers. I slapped on a few slices of wishbone fruit and a bit of land crab meat for an interesting sandwich.

Hermione popped a spark pod in her mouth, jolting slightly at the sensation before humming in satisfaction at the honey like flavor.

"Once you get passed the shock these are wonderful."

I chuckled. "Bit of a pain harvesting them though." I snickered as I remembered the frizzy mess her hair always became. "We'll have to spread the rows out a little bit if we ever intend on planting them as a crop."

She nodded solemnly at my words, comical in her seriousness, and promptly ate another. Her hair was beginning to lift at the ends. I reached over and gave her a poke, discharging the static with a jolt that got us both, and Violet who was perched on my shoulder.

We ate quickly and set off again. Violet trotted beside us, hooting softly at the wonders around us. The fern field gave way to a sparse forest, the trees here, for lack of a better word, were narrow at the base with wide flat branches. No leaves could be seen. Most trees on Faye lacked anything resembling Earth leaves. The wide flat branches danced lightly in the warm breeze.

i looked up, marveling at the bright, honey like color those branches gave off. Plants back home almost universally used photosynthesis to create food. On Faye we'd witnessed dozens of different methods. These trees in particular seemed to being using sunlight directly as an energy source, no conversion needed.

Hermione took my hand and we slowly approached one of the larger trees. It was warm, almost hot as we walked closer. The flat blade like branches were reflective with tiny veins that pulsed slightly with golden light. I reached out with my flesh and blood hand and ran it across the narrow trunk, it was nearly hot to the touch and almost completely smooth. I saw Hermione do the same, a grin stretch across her features.

"Horrific… or beautiful."

"Definitely beautiful this time Harry." It was almost enough to bring a tear to my eye. After thousands of lifetimes, most of them in darkness and war, I almost didn't feel worthy to stand in the presence of such beauty. I often got the same feeling while looking at my wife.

From her shoulder a soft cooing could be heard. Violet reached out with one of his longer arms and ran his own hand across the surface. He leaned forward, hesitantly, before wrapping his thin, long arms around the trunk and rested his face against it. He sighed in contentment and I laughed softly.

I stepped back slowly, still marveling at them. Hermione hadn't even taken out her notebook yet. I marked the spot we found them on our ever expanding map with a small star symbol. We would be visiting again.

We'd slowed our pace as we moved through the golden trees. I wondered idly if the power of them could be harnessed. Could we grow them and then use them like solar panels? It was a thought that begged exploration.

The animals we saw here seemed peaceful, not a single predator bothered us in this particular forest. We saw small creatures, something akin to flying squirrels but bigger flit between the trees. The heat they gave off didn't seem to bother the little guys much, in fact I saw a small group of them napping on the broad leaves, paying the heat little to no mind at all.

We moved on slowly, taking in the sights. Hermione collected pods, berries and fruit as we found them. She knew the trick of sensing their aura to determine if they were safe, but she enjoyed breaking them down to see what made them tick. I was just glad she didn't do the same with animals; she wasn't that much of a mad scientist… yet.

We could see the belted mountains long before we reached them. The change in elevation was so sudden that they were nearly impossible to miss. I suppose if you stared at your feet as you walked you might, bit who could do that in a place like this? I couldn't.

In fact, I was surprised that I hadn't managed to run into something yet, my gawking was that severe. The solar trees began to become interspersed with others, a small copse of singing trees had grown up in a ring in a small clearing, and we even saw the angled quivering branches of darker trees; like the ones we'd walked though when we first met the bristle backs.

The biomes of Faye seemed to be more inclusive than back on Earth. There you could find dozens of different species all growing in close proximity. On Faye you could walk through a forest of singing trees and not see another plant bigger than a bush or shrub. Perhaps the unique way solar trees got their food made it easier for others to take root. Hermione would probably figure it out one day. Im just glad she wasn't giving everything a complicated latin name, I was always one for simple and descriptive myself.

A larger clearing had the stalks of rodlings protruding from the ground, I ran a hand over one of them and it quivered slightly at the touch. I smiled at the thought of the huge friendly beasts, I was determined to ride on like an elephant one day, I don't think they'd hardly notice, the biggest of them had to weigh in at several tons at least.

"Don't wake it Harry, you know how cranky you can get if your afternoon nap gets interrupted."

I frowned in mock consternation. "Us old codgers need plenty of sleep, chasing whippersnappers out of our yards is hard work." She giggled and took my hand in her's, Violet cooed in happiness and picked a stray bug from Hermione's hair. She reached up and gave him a scratch behind the ear in appreciation.

The Ehch'tinche was about the happiest little guy I'd ever met, how he survived in those twisted tunnels was one of the biggest mysteries about him. He was smart for an animal, several steps above any ape found on Earth, including some humans I'd met.

Hermione had made it a bit of a side project to see if she could teach him sign language. She'd given the little guy a medical exam shortly after we had returned to the ship and discovered he had a rather advanced… brain for lack of a better word. Regardless of what outward appearances told us, the anatomy of animals on Faye were vast and different from those of Earth, most of his innards remained a mystery. Instead of the grey wrinkled blobs Earth animals had between their ears; Faye's wild life had a single knobby bulb in their heads. The bulb had thousands of thin tendrils extending outward, almost like fiberoptic cables. At the end of each tendril was another, smaller bulb. Those came in a variety of shapes and sizes; but it seemed that the more bulbs you had, and the more variety of shapes you had equated to how intelligent you were.

He could probably develop a rudimentary form of speech, if the muscles in his throat were varied enough to produce them. They didn't seem to be. I tried a translation spell on him, and while he seemed to understand us better, it didn't work in reverse. The one exception seemed to be when he cast magic, then I could make out a few simple words of intent, but that wouldn't be nearly enough to properly talk, so sign language it was. The process was slow going, but Hermione kept at it and was making headway.

We followed this new varied forest right up to the base of the plateau; we'd reached the Ridgeline. The trees ended about a hundred yards from the plateau. The land in between was covered in mesh of the spongy moss found at Landfall, with different spots and strips of grasses; they varied in color from a soft honey to a deeper amber. Different shrubs and bushes dotted the ground as well. These smaller plants had leaves of a sort, unlike most of the trees. The design was similar from plant to plant, but varied in color and size. Most leaves resembled ferns branching outward from a center stalk. Plants on Earth tended to be green because that was the easiest wavelength of light for them to utilize, but Faye was different. I don't know if it was from the magically thick nature of the world, or some crazy diversity found eons ago in their evolutionary tree, but the varied colors made up for the lack of anything resembling a flower on this world. Then again, we had only seen a tiny fraction of Faye, so maybe flowers grew elsewhere.

I double checked our map as we moved through the field, making sure it was still self updating properly. The handy bit of cartographer's magic had been a merlin send on this world. Wizards had used it to map Earth, leading to accurate globes hundred of years before muggles had managed to get close.

Hermione and I moved a bit apart now, staying close but each of us moving off to individual plants we found interesting. I approached a larger one that had deep blue leaves. The base of the leaves had a little curled pod at the bottom of each leaf, like the retracted proboscis of a butterfly. At the tip of each leave dangled a small fiber with a clutch of berries, like a small clump of pear shaped grapes.

The bush was nearly as tall as me; I sensed a mild warning from the plant, this usually meant that what ever was growing would be poisonous. I stood next to it, staring intently at the berries so I could memorize its appearance. It wouldn't do to get it mixed up with a similar fruit, and eat it by accident. I reached out with my metal hand, intending to snag a few for closer inspection. The curled proboscis looking pod unfurled and snapped out like a whip, hitting the back of my metsl hand. I pulled back, surprised but unhurt. I examined my hand for damage and noticed dozens of small yellow hairs.

Perhaps they delivered poison, I wasn't keen on finding out and cleared my hand with a swipe of magic. I pulled out my own notebook, battered but nearly as full as Hermione's and imprinted a picture of the plant within its pages, along with a few jotted notes.

We spent the next few hours like this, slowly going to different plants and noting them down. A few animals scurried about and I did my best to make observations on the ones we hadn't sen yet.

It was past Faye's closest thing to noon when Hermione spoke up. "Harry, I want to go up." I'd been wondering how long it would take for her to ask, I'm surprised it took as long as it did.

I hesitated before I answered her. I had felt the exploration bug too. We had a lot left to go on this side. We could probably spend years, discovering new things without ever ascending to the Plateau. But we were also trying to find the best place to start a colony, and there could be untapped resources up there. I smiled. "Just a quick peek love, we know those flying monstrosities nest up there."

She waved me off. "We've sen them going into the mountains, true, but have never spotted one in the plateau. I think we'd be mostly safe as long as we stay close to the edge."

"Alright then, but if we get eaten I get to tell you I told so."

She laughed, "you can't complain if you've been eaten though, so thats a win-win in my favor."

We made our way across the field toward the plateau. The nearly sheer wall of rock and dirt stretched up before us.; cracks, fissures, and small caves dotted it sporadically. I saw the gleam of eyes in one of those caves, whoever owned them seemed content to just watch, and I had no desire to change its mind.

"How do you wanna do this love? Climb? I know a trick that lets you stick to flat surfaces, neat little bit of magic."

She smiled patiently at me. "Or we could fly up there, and cut a few hours off the trip."

I sighed, Mione was stealing all my fun away. "Oh I suppose." I made sure to sound as morose as possible before giving her a grin. With a little boost of magic, we rose into the air and gently flew upward toward the top.

3.

Caves dotted the entire thing, like Swiss cheese made of rock. I saw many more eyes gleaming in the dark but didn't bother them. If I had to guess they were nocturnal in nature .

One thing that stuck me out as odd, was the heat. From my experience, the higher you went the colder the air got; Faye was showing little mysteries about every five seconds. Perhaps the jungle covered mountains kept the humidity high. That kind of climate shouldn't be able to grow this high up anyway. Just another case of magic giving the laws of nature the middle finger.

We touched down without incident about a hundred feet from the edge and got our first up close look. The edge was covered with flakey rock, but vegetation appeared within just a couple of feet.

"Its completely different up here. The humidity alone is off the charts, look at those trees Harry."

I had already been looking. They were thick and short with smooth grey trunks, not a single branch sprouted anywhere. Instead, their tops sprouted a large blue bulb with orange feelers wiggling from the center. Something akin to a four winged bird, a featherless bird mind you, swooped down near one of the bulbs. It got too close. A few feelers snapped out, showing that they were much longer than they appeared, and snatched the bird clean out of the air. That blue bulb opened, to reveal rows of what looked remarkably like shark teeth.

The little dragon bird struggled fruitlessly for a few moments before the feelers brought it into the bulbs opening. With a sickening crunch, the bird dragon was promptly eaten.

I gave a low whistle at the display. With a chuckle I turned to Hermione. "You sure you wanna be up here love? The trees are meat eaters."

Hermione already had a notebook out and was sketching a design of the tree, her only notes so far read 'carnivorous.' "After everything Harry, if we get eaten by a tree then we deserve it."

I suppose that was true. Hell it could be some kind of animal for all we knew. Shame about the little flyer though, it had been a beautiful creature. The tree finished its meal and grew still, looking far to innocent for what we just witnessed. Even the feelers had retracted inside completely. I noticed that roughly half the trees were dormant, the others had those orange tendrils wriggling and waving about, like great big worms after a rain storm.

You couldn't really call it a forest, the blue bell trees were scattered about, with less than twenty of them visible from our position. What could have been mistaken for grass from our first fly by turned out to be something entirely different. It was similar to the sponge moss found growing around in big patches down below, but a bright green in color, plus it was prickly. It had the texture of a hedgehog's back, though not as strong. I ran a hand over it, feeling the tiny pricks. It wasn't enough to really be painful, but you wouldn't want to fall face first on it. There were a number of orange and purple shrubs as well. The purple ones had berries, but feeling them with my magic told me that eating them would be a bad idea. Probably wouldn't kill you, just make you wish you were for a while.

Sensing magical auras was harder on Faye than Earth, the stuff swims in the very air, unless an animal was particularly strong, something standing still could just about blend into the back ground. That's why I didn't notice until I laid eyes on it.

In retrospect I really should have seen it immediately, I was going soft in my old age. It had been great to feel that old sense of adventure creeping though my veins. But it had made me careless.

The thing before me was around nine feet tall and stood on two powerful legs, fur covered its arms and legs, but the rest of it was covered in scales, and it was glaring at me with its four eyes.

With speed far to great for its size, the beast charged.

A/N: look at that, I'm managing to keep to my schedule for once guys, lets hope I can keep the trend going. Not the most action packed chapter, but everybody deserves a break from time to time, besides, next week's update will more than make up for it.


	7. RaptorBears

I don't know when in history a wizard might have bred a grizzly bear and a velociraptor, nor do I know how it came to reside here, but that's what was barreling toward me. A snout full of razor like teeth, muscular arms ending in claws that looked like garden shears. Fur bristles and scales blending in and out with a powerful tail to help keep its balance, the bipedal nightmare fuel was charging us.

Fuck the genocide rule, I'd changed my mind, this world definitely had monsters. It was fast, faster than anything moving on two legs had any right to be, too fast to cast a spell, too fast to dodge. I had less than a second and power flooded my veins, primordial magic roaring in challenge, it had found something worthy of a fight. I distantly heard Hermione scream in shock, as the behemoth slammed into me. My muscles bulged and nearly buckled at the pure unrelenting force of it. Like having a mountain lobbed at you. It out weighed me by a thousand pounds and knocked me off my feet, but I didn't go sprawling. I dug my fresh hand into the bristles, feeling them cut me, my metal hand dug into its flesh.

I slammed into the ground on my back, and heaved, roaring in anger and pain. I pivoted it over my head, the ancient magic in my body the only thing preventing my legs from snapping at the shear weight, and pushed, as hard as I could. My metal fingers slid out of its side with a wet slurp as it flew back. I scrambled to my feet, the beast hadn't went sprawling like I wanted, no, it had caught itself on hands and feet, skidding in the dirt and vegetation. We stood facing each other. I could see it, the hungry, primal intelligence behind those hateful eyes.

"Hermione, stay back." I knew she wanted to help, but this thing wasn't like the other beasts on Faye. This was a titan amongst mortals compared to the animals that lived below. Perhaps even a match for our magic. I didn't have time to think, no time to ponder. This was an organic machine, designed for killing, and killing is what it would do.

Or try at least.

Viridian power flared around me like flames as it charged again. I roared and blasted it with pure killing intent, the beam struck it square in the chest. A deep gauge tore into its skin, but it rolled sideways across the attack, digging a deep groove across its side and shoulder and it was charging again, seemingly unable to feel the pain and damage I'd inflicted.

I threw beams of power, lighting and fire, and razor thin slashes of magic. Any one of them would have killed anything else we'd seen with a single hit, but it was fast, extremely so. The hulking body twisted unnaturally through the air. Fire singed half a hand, a beam tore a chunk of ear loose, and my slashes, powerful enough to split molecules into atoms, nicked it on the cheek, causing a thin line of blood to appear, but it avoided every attack enough to prevent its death. Moving fast enough to blur in the air, so fast even my eyes could barely see it.

I readied for it to pounce at me again but instead it slashed the air between us. The air split with red energy that leapt from its claws. I crossed my arms, moving so fast that my clothes began to smoke, and conjured a shield before me. The shield held, but the pure kinetic energy sent me skidding backward.

My primordial magic roared in approval and flared again, the fire surrounding me growing larger, brighter, and hotter. I don't know if surviving the slash surprised it, I didn't have time to think, all I knew was it hadn't pressed its attack; so I did. Whips of viridian flame appeared in both hands and I leapt forward, swinging my arms wide, catching it across the face and chest, right in the wounds I left earlier.

The damaged flesh caught fire and I attacked again, striking an arm and leg before it could move. My next attack was only a glancing blow; it was moving again. The fire was magical and could not be snuffed out, not even at the speeds that the raptor bear was moving. I had it now.

I dropped the whips as it came in close, intent on ripping my head from my shoulders. I dodged the first blow, leaping back out of the attack and barely receiving a scratch for the effort. It was slowing now, weakening from the pain of the fire that still spread across it. Those hate filled intelligent eyes locked onto to me; it knew it wasn't going to live much longer. The next swipe I caught in my metal hand. The claws tried to bite into the metal but it was little use. A surface scratch was as much as it could manage. I bent the hand backward, magic pushing my muscles far beyond mortal means, and heard something in its arm snap. I ducked the next swipe and delivered a point blank severing curse with my flesh hand to its side. The magic bit deep.

I felt its strength fade at that last injury and its knees buckled crashing to the ground. I let go of it, and watched at the burning hateful gaze glazed over as life finally left the monster. I quenched the magical fire still consuming the corpse and stepped back, my breath coming in deep ragged breaths. I hadn't gotten a workout like that in some time.

My muscles quivered and burned from use as I released my primordial magic, the bloodlust of the ancient magic quenched in the fires of mortal combat.

I staggered slightly and sat down, shaking momentarily as adrenaline began to ebb away. I looked for Hermione and spied her walking toward me, trying not to run, trying to remain calm. She looked angry, uh oh.

"Im sorry love, I don't think I would have had any other choice but to kill it." She muttered something under her breath I didn't here and started casting diagnostic charms. The back of my head was throbbing, my back too. She cast medical spells with a kind of routine speed that belied her skill.

"Im not angry you killed it Harry, Merlin knows it couldn't be reasoned with. Im just upset you pushed me to the side. The fight could have been over much faster, with less risk, if we'd both handled it. Im nearly as strong as you, you know that."

I nodded. "That's true, and I'm sorry for that too, my protective streak had been on high alert ever since we were in the ehch'tiree's nest. I just didn't want to see you hurt is all." I received a thwack to the back of my recently healed head, none to gentle.

"And I don't like seeing you hurt either macho man. I wont deny it, watching you fight like an animal gets me… heated, but i'd rather us both take on something like that, to prevent either of us from getting hurt."

I nodded, properly chastised now." I'll do my best to remember that in the future."

"You'd better." Then she kissed me, hard and searing on the lips. I felt an entirely different animal stirring inside me at that notion.

2.

Over two centuries of being together hadn't quelled any passion between us, and Violet had the sense to leave himself buried in the dirt until we were dressed again. I'd swear the little guy was embarrassed. He'd shown a unique defense against danger. When he was threatened, Violet could bury himself in the dirt, completely comfortably. It was a rapid process and left no trace of where he might have been. If something got lucky and started to dig, he'd just dig down another hundred feet or so and take a nap until the danger passed.

I grinned at him as he emerged from his self imposed grave, shaking the dirt lose with little effort. He trotted over to me and climbed up into my arms, hugging me close.

I rubbed his back in affection smiling. "I'm okay buddy, takes more than that to get rid of me." He hooted softly and settled on my shoulders. Now that all the excitement was over, we could finally take a look around.

We all stuck close together, not knowing if more of the bear raptors were present. If I had to guess from the nature of the one I'd fought, I'd say they were solitary in nature, but one could never be too sure about such things.

The plateau itself wasn't entire flat. It sloped gently toward the mountains, some mile or so away, before climbing sharply. It should have been colder up here, but the opposite was true, Either magic was at work again, or there was something seriously hot beneath out feet. Maybe the mountain closest to us was actually a volcano. I'm sure we'd find out in time. It was an eerie place. A blanket of cloud cover obscured the ground from this height, but it thinned before we'd reached the plateau. Similarly, there were more clouds hiding the mountain tops.

I wondered, if we chose to head into those mountains, if it would grow warmer or colder. Something else we would eventually find out. For now though we were content to stick to the bottom and explore the relatively flat areas. We could see a river off in the distance, it ended in a waterfall that went cascading off the edge. I could see the spray from here, along with the strangest rainbow I'd ever seen. The colors were reversed. I swear this planet went out of its way to show how much magic there was in the very air. It was pretty though.

I was feeling much stronger after Hermione's… healing touch. Nothing like a good roll in the hay to put a spring into your step. We walked, hand in hand, happy but alert, both of us wary about further danger. Violet was on us like glue. The fight had scared the little guy, and he had no desire to wander off after such a hostile welcome; couldn't say I blamed him either.

We watched another bulb tree hunting. This one was bigger, and managed to snag two dragon birds out of the air at once. Everything up here was intent on eating meat it seemed. I wondered why anything would fly low enough to get caught. After a while I assumed the dragon birds would have learned. Then again I didn't know their level of intelligence.

The three of us approached the river, marveling at the clear, aqua marine color. Hermione stuck a hand inside. "Its quite cool." She smiled at me and after a quick scan with magic, we both filled our respective canteens. They weren't spelled to be bottomless, that required an outside source for the canteen to draw on, something to replenish itself with. That being said they were far deeper than they had any right to be; something in the range of 30 gallons.

We decided to follow the river. The spread out vegetation grew thicker the closer we got to the mountains, especially so around the river bed. The land was strange, vaguely reminding me of Scottish highlands, but with alien flora.

We could see something large lumbering from across the river in the distance. It was slow moving, with a heavy body and six thick legs. I had trouble telling which end was the head since it appeared to have horns and almost elephant like trunks protruding from both ends.

I watched one end rear up on four legs before lowering the spiky lump I assumed was its head over a bulb tree. There was a distance grinding sound, like a drill running low on battery power, before the six legged animal lowered itself back down. The bulb was completely missing.

A few moments later we watched it repeat the process… with the other end. "Out of everything we've seen, that's got to be the weirdest."

Hermione only nodded in agreement.

The farther…inland? Yes I suppose that description worked as best as anything else; the farther inland we moved the thicker it became. The scrubs and bushes grew larger, some towering over us now, and a strange cyan grass had sprung up some time ago. I swear this entire planet was like the world's craziest acid trip sometimes. The river gradually widened, and we could see little animals swimming about in the clear water.

Not a one of them resembled fish, most of them lacked fins of any discernible description. It seemed most aquatic life, at least that found here, had thin billowing folds instead, similar to how a manta ray moved. I spied one that looked like a cross between a butterfly and a shrimp, I wonder what it would taste like soaked in butter and garlic.

The river continued to widen until it became a lake. The water was crystal clear with that bright blue color. A slightly orange sand covered the shores. It was close to a proper forest now, the vegetation only thinning a dozen yards or so from the lake's edge. A small group of bird dragons were drinking on the opposite shore. They didn't pay much attention to us other than a cursory glance. They were beautiful creatures; long slender bodies in a variety of colors with double sets of leathery wings and beaks. A few of them had horns, or rather head spikes, as actual horns hadn't seemed to evolve on Faye.

We watched them quietly, Hermione sketched a picture and took a few notes, but we mostly just watched. The lake contained a plethora of life, big and small. Something moved like an eel in the water. Its movements were slow, almost lethargic. That changed quickly. With lightning speed it launched out of the water. The front end opened in a reverse umbrella shape, like a net made of flesh, and snatched a bird dragon from the shore. It recoiled in on itself and closed around the struggling animal before sliding back into the water.

The lake was long but narrow and I saw a few other similar shapes lounging about the bottom, but their numbers were low and none were close by. Farther up the beach we saw a large lumbering shape with its head bowed, drinking deeply. Details were difficult to make out from here, but it looked vaguely apelike in shape, but bigger. I could see trunks protruding from its face, those seemed to be drawing the water upward into some kind of mouth.

"Um, Harry?"

I glanced at her, I didn't like the look on her face. "Yes love?"

"Look farther up the beach, on our side."

I did as I was told and cursed under my breath. Three raptor bears were making their way toward us. The largest of the three was out front, moving quickly, but methodically. Its four eyes were locked onto me. The two in back were growling and snapping at each other, those were around the size of the one I'd fought earlier, it hit me then that I may have only been fighting a juvenile.

"Violet, go hide, perhaps we can avoid them." I knew if it wanted to, the leader could close the gap between us in just a few seconds; they were that fast. But if we were quick with a couple of spells designed to hide us, from sight and smell, we might just avoid them.

Violet did as he was told and scampered down the beach, in a puff of dirt and dust he was gone, buried beneath the beach.

"Feel like letting me help this time macho man?"

I grinned ruthfully at her. "Lets see if we can avoid them, we have a bit more options then last."

"Avoid a fight? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" I felt like rolling my eyes but refrained.

With a whisper snap of magic we faded from view, are scent going with us. We hunkered down low and started moving away from the beach and into the foliage. It didn't work. I watched as the leaders head tilted, its eyes tracking us even though we were invisible. I realized the problem then.

Almost all creatures on Faye had a double set of eyes, if not a double set of most sensory organs. One for perceiving the normal world, and another for magic. Wrapping ourselves in spells probably made us stick out like sore thumbs.

Mage sight on Earth was a rare and difficult talent to master. Even with all the years I had under my belt, I'd met less than a thousand wizards personally that could manage it. A few each generation, and they were usually prodigies, like the distantly late Albus Dumbledore, a remarkable young man if i'd ever met one. Such a strange mind he'd had.

"Drop your spells love, its no use. They can see magic, we're making ourselves more obvious."

I heard her curse beneath her breath as we both faded back into existence. It looked like wards weren't the only things I needed to work on. Had to find a way to blend an aura into the background. That was a problem for when we weren't so… pressed for time.

They'd began to pick up speed when we disappeared from normal sight to a decent trot, now they slowed and stopped. The largest of them turned back to the other two and barked gutturally at them. They stopped fighting instantly and seemed to pay attention to the leader. Holy shit were they talking?

Hermione noticed too, and cast a translation spell, the same complicated one we used when talking to the Charyepchee. My blood ran cold.

"Char brah blood craz tar brother bar kar smell."

There was a pause, then, "Tarz smell dead axcrs kill them drar feast." Well fuck.

"Harry, I think they're way smarter than we thought." She remembered then, that the translation spell worked both ways.

The leaders head snapped around back to us then, all four eyes narrowing. It growled low and guttural, like an angry mountain. "Kill dead tarz drar. Brother dead kill axcrs dead." The two in back roared in anger and approval. Could they tell I'd fought and killed one of their own? It seemed like it. They were closer now, and seemed to have excellent hearing.

I tried something, knowing it wouldn't work, but I tried anyway. "Stop, we no fight, no blood today!" I repeated it several times, letting the magic do the work, hopefully repeating it would make it clearer to them. The leader paused again, its head tilted back and a growling chuffing sound escaped it. It was laughing.

"Yes fight axcrs, yes blood, yes dead." It was done talking, no negotiations would be happening today, as one, they charged.

"Oh, and yes love, feel free to help this time, you know, if you want to."

She didn't comment as we bathed the beach in magical light. Standing so close to each other, the bright viridian and honey color of our magic swirled and bloomed, cascading outward and mixing to a strange cyan blue between us. Our magic loved each other like we did, and often complimented each other in interesting way. Hermione's eyes glowed so bright detail wad lost, replaced with glowing drops of bright honey, I knew mine had taken on a similar effect. They didn't even miss as step in their charge.

"Remember love, they're extremely fast. Wide range attacks, don't give them room to maneuver." She nodded quickly, there was no time for further words. The leader slashed out with crimson ribbons of magic, but I was better prepared this time, a concentrated shield batted away the attack, with my flesh hand I sent out a bolt of green lightning two feet across. It moved but was still struck on the shoulder, the two behind dodged the attack entirely. It leapt high into the air and we jumped away from each other, no sense in us being caught in the same blast.

The big guy wanted me, which left Hermione to deal with the younger two. I couldn't allow that. I conjured spikes of titanium and sent them hurling toward the two smaller beasts as the big one jumped again, hell bent on crushing me under foot. Several spikes struck one, crippling one arm and leg. That's all I had time to do as the leader was upon me.

Larger he might have been, but so was he faster. I batted away slashes of crimson, noting they were stronger than the first attack and retaliated. A siege spell, designed to melt through castle walls was super charged and sent from my hands. The recoil made my arms jump as the wide battering ram of super heated magic poured from both hands, the raptor bear moved but not fast enough, we were too close together. Its right arm and shoulder caught the full blast. Fur and scale burned away exposing flesh and bone, the limb hung limply, now only attached with a bit of bone and gristle.

It roared in pain and anger but didn't slow, its maw open wide and a sickly purple fire roared outward. I threw up a shield and was sent tumbling backward. It held, but the shear heat had seeped through, blistering my arms and causing my clothes to smoke. I roared in anger and leapt forward, green blades of energy and plasma growing in my hands like swords of light. I swiped, severing the already damaged arm and taking a blow across the shoulder for my rouble. The entire arm vibrated and went numb for a moment, blood squirting in the sand. My aura was so hot it seared the beast's one remaining hand as it attacked. Served the bastard right.

Hermione danced and wove between the other two, if I was a tank, she was a fighter jet, delivering precise, wide range attacks. They weren't as powerful, but were more direct, accumulating damage over a wider area. The crippled one stumbled and fell, titanium spikes still protruding from its leg and arm. She stomped on it as she jumped away from the other. No idea how she did it, but with that single foot she'd left behind an explosive rune. What would have atomized a large vehicle only blew bits of flesh from its chest. It roared in anger and rolled, paying no mind to the fact it drove the spikes in deeper as it righted itself. Seeping blood from its chest. She spun in the air, avoiding three crimson slashes, but catching the last in her mid drift. She stumbled when she landed, one hand pressed to her belly. Blood welled up from the wound. She grimaced and snarled, sending out a bolt of magical fire, searing away the beast's damaged leg. It began a loud keening howl that rattled the teeth in our heads.

The largest beast cracked me in the jaw with a powerful blow, if my magic hadn't melted its claws, my head would have been sliced to ribbons. Instead it only felt like a bull had kicked me in the skull. My vision swam and threatened to darken but I wouldn't let it. I screamed, primordial magic flaring. My aura grew darker, more concentrated and deadlier. The pain of my injuries faded away, to be replaced with a fire that burned all the way through me. My very skin glowed as I blocked its next swipe and sent of blade of energy into its middle.

Blood and entrails, steaming and mangled, gushed from the wound and I felt its strength falter, I punched it straight in the wound, my arm sinking in up to the elbow, and blasted it with raw magic, from the inside. It was sent soaring backward, its guts following it like grotesque streamers.

The last standing raptor bear roared in anger and began to heat up. We jumped to each other's side and raised our arms. Its mouth stretched wide and more purple fire shot forth. This kind was different, hotter and crackling, burning the air and leaving behind the smell of ozone. It seemed to hurt the beast to do this. Our combined shield held and the power stopped much of the heat from reaching us. I grimaced and broke the shield as soon as the fire petered out. We leapt as one, our magic working in tandem. We struck it on either side of the head, the force so strong its cranium was turned to mist. It fell dead.

Breathing hard and angry, we turned to the last. It was still howling, not a word, just a sound, loud and angry. I stalked toward it and raised a glowing hand but stopped short, my blood turning to ice in fright, actual fright, if only for a moment. Dozens of them were approaching now. Distant still, but the howling hadn't been from fright or anger, it had been a call to arms. Bear raptors were coming toward us from down the beach, and out of the thick vegetation and trees. That howling that had been going on for some minutes was silenced as I cut its head from its body, but it was too late, they would be on us in a minute, two tops.

3.

We stood back to back, eyeing the platoon of beasts. My eyes darted back and forth, trying to keep as many of them in sight as possible. They weren't organized in there movements. The howling had drawn them in from all over. They came by themselves, or in groups of twos and threes. Several were snapping at each other, and I could see farther up the beach that two of them had stopped coming for us and had begin fighting each other; the call seemingly forgotten.

"Plans Harry?" I licked my lips, the primordial magic in my system burned hot, ready for more. It was like a beast of its own sometimes, especially in deadly situations such as these. I knew Hermione's own connection to the ancient force was the same. This had only increased when we'd drained the wardstone all those years ago.

"Genocide rule still in effect?" She hesitated to answer me. We'd wanted to acclimate to this world, become a part of it. We had no desire to wipe out an entire species, or damage it so badly it wouldn't recover; regardless of how horrible we might find it. But this was different; and was looking more like we'd have to fight an entire army. If the other's behavior was any indication, they wouldn't stop until we killed them all. On top of it all, these… beings weren't just animals; no matter how they appeared, the were intelligent enough to have language.

"Yes, it has to be. With as much strength we have available to us, it could be a slippery slope. What if we decided that these… people were just to dangerous to let live? What if we find some other species and end up deciding the same? What if in a year, or ten, we decide anything that could hurt us is too big of a threat to start a colony, and we have to make the planet 'safe' for the colonists? You know better than I when it comes to such things, could we stay on the right path?"

I hesitated to answer, even with a small army of monsters approaching I hesitated. And there it was, in my own head, already thinking of them as monsters. My mind cast back to Earth; the things I'd seen, the things I'd done. The darkness I'd fallen into in my quest to destroy him. Sometimes I'd wondered if we hadn't traded places on the cosmic scale… sometimes I'd felt more like a monster than he was.

"Its not a question I can answer Mione. I'd like to say yes, we can keep each other in check, keep each other strong… but we could also push each other in the wrong direction, drive each other deeper with each choice, I don't honestly-"

And then I had no more time to think or talk, as the lake next to us exploded in a spray of mist. Some had swam, and we hadn't noticed, fuck we hadn't felt them.

If we'd drop our power after killing the three, it would have spelled our end. We would have died right there on the beach. Two of them, a bit bigger than the largest we'd fought so far, slammed into us. Hermione went tumbling across the sand, skidding and bouncing and swearing. The one that got me rode me, slammed me into a tree hard enough to rip it out of the ground. I felt something in my side snap, ribs were broken. I came to a stop with it on my back. Like lightning it struck downward with both hands, claws intent on ripping my head from my shoulders.

I ignored the pain, everything was pushed aside as a red haze descended over my vision. I brought my hands up and caught its own. Magic flooded my muscles, they bulged and ached with increased strength and power. It pushed down as hard as it could, intent on skewering me. I would not let it. I roared and wrenched my arms sideways, primordial magic flaring dangerously now. I was using so much power, almost as much as my last fight with Him had brought out of me. I had ripped its arms off. My aura glowed so bright I appeared bigger than I was, something more than just human. I kicked it off me and leapt to my feet, dashing for Hermione.

I found her, burning with honey colored fire, and her arms buried in her attacker's chest up to the elbow. We didn't have more time to talk, that first attack had given the others time to reach us.

Slashes of crimson and searing beams of purple fire bore down on us. No time for shields, no time to move. We flared our auras. The honey and viridian mixed and blended and leapt outward, eating at the attacks, absorbing, deflecting and dissipating them. We dashed in opposite directions. We weren't even people now, not really, we looked like streaks of energy, dashing toward foes of mere flesh and blood. My ribs no longer hurt, in truth I wasn't sure I had ribs at the moment. The power was over whelming. I broke the sound barrier, my arms burning as hot as plasma as I clotheslined the nearest two. I didn't tear their heads off as much as I burned straight through them.

I didn't need spells, didn't need to think of an attack, I was magic, my very being. Everything I touched died. A punch or kick didn't send them flying, it burned through them like a torch held to a piece of paper. I didn't breath, like this I didn't need to. Distantly my thoughts wondered how long I could hold this, what ever I'd become now, this new state of being. If it would kill me, burn me up. I wondered then if I held it too long, could I even let it go? Would it fade away like my primordial magic always had? The few that weren't killed outright at my first touch began howling, calling for more. They refused to give up, would fight us down to the last members of their kind. I didn't care now, I couldn't. This power took the place of any empathy, any pity or mercy I might have possessed.

And then it was over. They laid dead or dying at our feet, I wasn't even breathing hard now. I looked to the glowing figure I knew to be my wife. We had ended them all. And with their dying, the blood lust faded away. I could see even more bear raptors coming now, not dozens, but hundreds. Approaching us from all sides, showing no fear. The red haze reared up again, intent of stopping this threat once and for all. But I pushed it down, held it at bay. I grabbed at my head, warring with myself.

"Pull violet from the earth, we must leave." My own voice scared me, and that helped more than anything else.

She didn't speak, only nodded. With a bare jerk of her finger, violet rose from the ground. She wrapped him in a cocoon of protective magic, he still slept like he always did in the ground. We rose into the air, and darted away, slanting toward the edge of the plateau.

4.

I was burning, a sun shaped like a man. Tremors coursed up and down my right arm. My metal hand glowed. Even with all the magic I had poured into it over the centuries, I was afraid it would melt away to slag. We reached the edge of the plateau, a hundred miles from where we'd ascended and I let the primordial magic lighting me up fade away, Hermione did the same. It was a mistake to do so in the air. Tremors wracked my body, I vibrated so fast and hard my teeth felt like they would rattle loose.

My body seized and I lost control, my wife suffering the same condition as I, and we fell. I noticed vaguely then that most of our clothes had burned away, leaving us with rags. Somehow, miraculously our bags were mostly intact. I didn't have time to think of much else as the wind whipped passed us, cooling our smoking bodies. Tremors of pain ran to my core again and I twisted in the air, fighting for control.

The ground was approaching fast, drawing nearer with our death, if I didn't do something. I didn't have the control for flight, but I had to try something. I threw a shaking hand out in front and sent a cushion of magic to the ground below, I just hoped that's where we hit.

I was dimly aware of Hermione calling my name, and I reached out with a shaking hand to grab her own. We rushed closer and closer, so fast my eyes watered.

My vision tunneled and darkened for a moment before I could see again. The planet's surface filled my vision. Just as I thought we would die, we slowed, rapidly enough to make my stomach roll, and stopped; three feet from the ground.

The cushioning charm faded then, letting us fall the rest of the way. I lay in the dirt and grass, panting and heaving. Using magic in such a way… it was a wonder we hadn't detonated like a pair of nuclear bombs.

After some time, could have been minutes or hours, it was hard to tell, I rolled onto my back and sat up, surveying our surroundings. Hermione stirred next to me and slouched on my side as she righted herself a bit and looked around.

The plateau wall was before us, several hundred yards away. Two branching fins of rock stretched out from it, tall and long but not very wide, like a shallow box canyon. The foliage within was much more sparse than where we were. I smiled, feeling exhaustion take me.

"Looks like we found the right spot love, perfect for a colony." I waved my hand around us, hoping my strength had returned enough for the ward to hold, and collapsed backward, into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A/N: there you go, another update, and this one a day early! Hope you all enjoy, let me know what you think.


	8. A New Home?

My head hurt… scratch that, my everything hurt. A groan escaped my lips as I opened my eyes bleary. I was lying on my back, staring up at an orange sky. I don't know if night was approaching or fleeing; I was just glad it wasn't broad daylight.

I sat up, leaning back on elbows and looked around; my brain still fuzzy. It came back, slowly at first and then in a rush all at once. We'd explored the plateau, and found something terrible and intelligent up there.

I remembered the fighting, the blood lust and the need to flee. We could have taken them all, destroyed their numbers; bit that wasn't the point. We didn't need to. I was sort of ashamed and proud at the same time. We should have left sooner, made less of an impact. But after being jumped and Hermione being attacked, I'd lost it.

For a little while anyway.

It had taken an immense amount of self control to leave; more than I'd had to employ in a very long time. So much of my life was spent warring with various monsters, human and otherwise, it was instinct at this point.

But we had resisted, and that had been a small victory in and of itself. I looked down at my hands, my muscles still quivered slightly, but the tremors were mostly gone now, and I didn't feel nearly as weak.

I marveled at the power that had come out during the fight. I'd used more magic before, but honestly never in such a way. It was as if all my power had turned inward, super charging me. Hermione's magic had done the same after coming into contact with my own. I could feel that power now, bubbling and simmering beneath the surface. It was like my primordial magic, but focused inward, like a different version of the same thing, even more primal in nature.

We would have to be careful with this ability, it had proven to be extremely powerful, but to me seemed to trade in some rationality as an exchange. We'd fought where we should have fled. I think we would have made a different choice if it hadn't reared up.

Still, I'm sure it would prove to be a useful tool in the long run. And with practice, perhaps the blood lust that came with it could be reigned in.

I looked to Hermione, sleeping right next to me, and Violet curled up behind her. My wife was nearly naked, just as I was. This strange new form of primordial magic had burned most of our clothes. I marveled at the fact our bags had managed to survive the transformation, I don't recall wearing it after my skin had begun to pulse and grow green; but I was rather distracted at the time.

I reached out with my flesh hand and gently touched her shoulder and side, waking her up.

"Rise and shine beautiful." She mumbled something incoherent and groaned; much like I had when I first woke.

"Mmm time izz it?" I chuckled at her mumbling. The classic tempus spell didn't work very well on Faye, it had a different number of hours after all. Instead I used a bit of magic that gave you a rough idea of the time of day instead. Early morning.

"The suns are just rising love. Its going to be quite bright soon."

She blinked owlishly, paying no mind to her burned away clothes. "Harry… what happened to us?"

I shook my head. " I have no idea, but even now, I can still feel it, I think I could bring it out, if I wanted to."

She looked at her own hands, nodding. "It bubbles almost, just beneath the skin."

"Exactly, my best guess is we focused our magic inward, concentrated it toward ourselves somehow instead of outward. We can both boost our muscles and reactions with it, but this is something else, a whole other level." I balled my hands into fists, testing their strength. The tremors were gone now. I realized then how hungry I was.

"I'm starving, how about you?" At the mention of food, her stomach started to rumble. I grinned.

We reached for our bags, scorched as they were, and opened them in search of something to nibble on. I was dismayed at what we found.

The food had been charred, the water in our canteens boiled away. I reached in deeper and pulled out my notebook. It looked fine, but I could feel that the magic inside had been stripped away. I opened it up, my notes and pictures were still inside, but the book had lost the ability to imprint images, and it could no longer keep adding pages at the back It was completely filled up, with a cracked and bulging spine. The items in Hermione's bag were similarly effected.

"Well shit, guess we'll be snuggling up quite tight tonight in our non magical tent." I chuckled and she smiled.

"I don't mind that at all lover boy."

"Nor do I gorgeous." I kissed her and stood on strong legs, the quakes completely faded now.

"Come on, we'll have to forage, and maybe do a bit of hunting." This time it was my stomach that rumbled.

Thanks mostly to Hermione's incredible note taking ability, we were both familiar with a variety of common fruits and vegetables that were safe to eat.

Within an hour we had enough to fill our bellies. I'd even managed to get a small animal. Lizard like in shape but with fur like bristles instead of scales. It tasted vaguely of salmon and pepperoni.

We ate breakfast, both of us keeping our eyes on the box canyon that lay straight ahead. That was our next stop. We needed to find out if it would serve our purposes. Just because something looked good, didn't mean that it was good.

"It's the best looking spot we've found so far. I think its about time for us to go take a peek."

By this point both of us had managed to repair our clothes a bit, they were now more conjuration then fabric.

The three of us started forward into the plateau's divet, what I'd been thinking of as a box canyon. Perhaps its not the best word for what we were looking at, the fins of stone protruding from either side of the rock wall were narrow, only a few hundred feet. It dug into the plateau wall as well, like some giant of unfathomable size had scoped out a chunk of rock eons ago, pulling the rock out at edges, more like a bay made of rock.

The tall walls provided shade, the sun would take a bit longer to fill this place. It was cooler, and the sparse trees weren't as large or impressive as the surrounding forest. It was perhaps one hundred yards across, and maybe a hundred and fifty deep. The plateau wall in the back stretched up for some way, before gently sloping outward, forming something of a large subtle overhang. From the top, you'd never be able to tell it was there.

There were several patches of wishbone bushes growing dotted within, along with several other plants that bore fruit. Things id think of as vegetables on Fate weren't nearly as prevalent. Then again on Earth, what most people thought of as vegetables, and fruit for that matter, had been carefully changed through breeding over hundreds of years. We had a stock of seed samples stored on the ship and I wondered how they'd do in the alien, magically rich soil. It would be interesting to see.

We took several hours to walk all the way the rounded inner wall, looking for tunnels or caves and only found one toward the back. It was a narrow crack, just big enough for a grown man to squeeze inside. We finished searching the wall before returning to the cave. I frowned at it, and wondered at what horrors it probably held, things that didn't like light on Faye had shown a penchant for being nasty buggers indeed.

"Well, you know if we're gonna seriously consider this place as a colony sight, we have to go in and take a look."

Hermione sighed at my words. "I suppose you're right. We could just plug it up, forget it was even here."

I shrugged. "We could, but id feel better looking first. We could trap something nasty in there, and we don't want something pissed managing to break through six months after people start settling in."

"Its not a very big entrance Harry."

"You're right, its not, but a whole colony of ehch'tiree could be stuffed in there, and bristle backs can literally jump through magic. I don't think they can travel through solid rock with the ability, but they can use it to squeeze through tiny cracks, as long as magic is flowing through it, and magic is literally everywhere here."

"I suppose you're right. Lets take a look and get this over with."

I chuckled, "had enough excitement for now love?"

"After yesterday? We're due for a boring stretch. A week without fighting something to the death would be lovely."

That got me laughing. We spelled our eyes for seeing in the dark, letting the world shift to a blue color before heading inside.

2.

The passage was rather narrow. In most places it was wide enough to walk single file, bit in several places we had to turn sideways to make it through.

It wasn't a deep passage, and just as I thought it might taper away completely, it suddenly widened into a large rocky chamber. The ceiling was a hundred feet over our heads and it opened off to either side.

It was big for a cave, but we could see the back wall from the entrance. The two of us walked around it back to the entrance and never found another entrance bigger around than my hand. It seemed like it had been unoccupied for a very long time, no scattered bones or refuse. With a sigh of relief it was deemed safe.

Hermione piped up as we made our way back into divet. "Its rather cool in there, if we widened the entrance some, could be good for large scale food storage."

I nodded my head in agreement, preservation charms started to get… funny if you used them on anything bigger than a walk in cooler. Freezing things in time had a way of doing that. I remember during the construction of Hogwarts and Helga had attempted to use one on a bigger area the size of the great hall. Prepared sides of beef started growing fur and skin again, and we'd go to check the egg count and find everything from chicks, to fully grown roosters decrepit in age. It was simply safer to use on smaller areas.

Hermione laughed at that tidbit of information. I grinned at the thought myself. We were back outside now and cast our eyes about us, both thinking similar thoughts.

Perhaps we'd found it, our new home.

We'd walked the perimeter, and checked out the cave. Now we began criss crossing the divet itself. A ring of singing trees grew in the middle, a colony of those small bristled lizards had made them their home. No large predators to speak of, not that I was surprised given the size. It wouldn't make for very large territory.

The plant life was thinner than the surrounding forest, and there weren't any large animals. I voiced my opinion of the spot. "I think this is it Mione. There could be better places, but I honestly think this is as good a spot as we could find for a first colony."

She nodded at my words. "With the natural protection on three sides, I don't see how we could ask for more." She grinned at me and I returned it. Now the real work could begin.

First order of business, is I think we should clear out a spot for our ship, then get it moved here. Most of the area is going to have to be cleared away but i want to leave the singing trees be. No reason to destroy those. They wont take up much room, and I don't want to disturb to occupants."

Our drop ship itself wasn't all that large, but it did have one feature that made it invaluable. Due to a lack of materials and given the tight schedule we'd had to work with, it was the only planet entering ship we had. But the ship was capable of being hooked up to these long cargo trailers we'd created. Each trailer could hold two hundred and fifty colonists comfortably. We'd attach the "trailers" for lack of a better word and bring them down in groups of that size. There were just over a thousand people floating over our heads, so it would take several trips.

This is why it had been so important to retrieve the stolen components and get the ship back in order. Without it we would have had to make hundreds of trips, apparating back and forth, from orbit. And we would have had to set up an apparation point first. What most wizards and witches had taken for granted on Earth, and didn't even know about, was how apparition really worked.

After the creation of the spell, the entire world had to be mapped with a grid pattern. Each spot where two lines intersected was an apparation point. It was like longitude and latitude, but on a far grander scale. Magicals didn't think about this much, but without that grid they could appear in a tree, or brick wall. Testing it had been a messy business. Combat apparition was line of site based and had slightly different rules, but for anything long range the grid was needed. Hermione and I had plans to map out a grid for all of Faye eventually, but given the nature of how the land changed over time, we weren't sure the same system would work here. For now, instead of an all encompassing grid, we would be setting up smaller ones, creating small safe zones for people to appear in.

We took a bit of a break for lunch. The colony site might have been a tad more sparse than the surrounding forest, but edible plants were still plentiful. I snagged a variant of the wishbone fruit, this one was redder and mintier than the purple variety, and took a bite. It was juicy and tingled down to my stomach.

After eating the clearing process began. We'd debated many times before on how to best do this, and had ruled out fire quickly. Even that fire which obeyed a wizard directly could be temperamental. We moved things instead. The edible plants and bushes were uprooted, gently, and then replanted farther away. It also gave us the chance to organize a bit. Nature had a way of spreading things out all over the place, so we clumped similar plants together. This would make it easier to harvest them at the start.

This would have been grueling, time consuming and back breaking work if not for magic. Using the arcane power flowing in us, we were able to move dozens of plants in this fashion at once. Anything deemed poisonous or dangerous was uprooted but not replanted. I scoured a spot down to the soil just outside the colony area and dumped them all there. Once I had a patch of dirt big enough to ensure it wouldn't spread, I then burned it. Much safer than setting the entire little box canyon on fire.

Once we had all the large plants out of the way, we cut and trimmed any additional trees, excluding the ring of singers. Those were stacked neatly for building supplies. The final step was trimming the low level grasses and plants. A few spells had it almost looking like a trimmed, oval yard minus the house. Magic or not the work was time consuming snd took most of the day. The suns were down before we had managed to finish completely.

Instead of heading back to the drop ship, we decided to camp for the night. Without the expansion charms on our tent it was a… tight squeeze.

Not that either of us minded that little fact.

3.

We both rose earlier the next morning. Relaxed from last night's activities, Hermione and I were all grins as we packed up and headed out. Before we left, we cast one of our net wards over the opening and top of our soon to be home, better safe than sorry.

Neither of us had realized it, but we were nearly a hundred and fifty miles from our ship. After the little adventure we'd had on the plateau, both of us wanted to put some distance between

us and where we'd encountered the bear raptor creatures. So to save time, we flew.

Flight was something wizards always seemed to have trouble with. Enchant a stick to carry you along? Sure, but to do so to yourself? That's just silly. I rolled my eyes at the thought as we lifted into the air and took off. Wizarding logic was strange one to say the least. Amazing things could be done with magic, but the simpler pieces to life had confounded them for centuries. The biggest hurdle a witch or wizard faced when wanting to fly was their wand. Flight, like the animagus transformation, or apparation, was a wandless skill. I suppose you could do it using one, but i'd never tried. All you needed to do was wrap yourself in magic and then lift that magic off the ground.

Wizards had used complicated spell chains to try to fly and they usually failed. When _He_ had taken the name Voldemort, he had used obscure dark spells to mimic the action, but that was more like being carried along on a platform of darkness instead of true flight. It was not a skill I had used as my time as Harry Potter. That had been a locked life, one of those where I didn't remember my past, except as vague nightmares I understood little of. It had been my last locked life, those since then I had been my true self. And many before in truth, but I'd also had locked lives in the past. I never discovered the mechanics to my seeming reincarnation, and I wasn't truly sure I wanted to know them either.

I had no memory of any kind of after life, just feelings of peace and rest. And even if a hundred years passed before I opened my eyes in the mortal world again, it felt nearly instant.

It was something I tried hard not to dwell on, worrying overly would do me no good. Perhaps one day I would know, at the end perhaps, but then again, I felt it more likely I never would. And I was fine with that. I imagine it would have driven Hermione mad though, not knowing things usually did.

A wizard's flight could be nearly frictionless; our magic parted the air in front of us like a razor and we were there within an hour. Violet seemed a bit woozy when we landed; I don't believe we'd ever flown with him before. As soon as my feet touched the ground, he leapt down and did his best to hug the dirt. I chuckled a little and ruffled his hair affectionately.

Hermione and I got to work at once. Our equipment was cleaned and stored inside the ship, shrinking charms had been used liberally to save room. Any jars and containers were stored in unbreakable cabinets with preservation charms on them. Notes were stacked and filed away. What little refuse we had accumulated was dealt with. I looked around the clearing, making sure we had everything in its place.

I smiled a bit, this little clearing had been our home since we'd come here, and I think I was going to miss it a bit. The two of us had already decided we would build a bit of an outpost before we left.

"How do you want to do this Harry? We could chop down a few trees and use them to build a little tower, something to keep it up off the ground."

The idea had plenty of merit, but I had a different idea. "Remember how the houses were a Svenwhick's village? I was thinking something like that. Like a treehouse."

She smiled, remembering the simple but beautiful homes and nodded. We picked three trees growing close together in a triangle pattern and started. We felled several trees and divided them down the middle, leaving one side flat and smooth, while the other was left rounded. Those were then cut into several sections for floors and walls.

I rose into the air and cut notches into the trunks of our chosen trees so the floor would rest evenly. The planks we'd prepared had grooves cut into heir sides. Half protruding, the other indented. From that we carefully slid them together, causing them to lock together. The assembly of the floor was done on the ground to make things a bit easier.

Once that was taken care of, Hermione levitated them into place, settling the floor into the grooves. We fixed them into place with permanent sticking charms. The walls came next. Those weren't nearly as tall; we'd decided on an open design, to allow for maximum visibility.

We used the same interlocking groves on those. Holes were bored straight through at the edges so we could insert rods. Those would add stability and allow us to attach the walls to the floor easier. Once we finished up the last wall, they were similarly floated and attached to the base; sticking charms were added for extra hold.

The rods we slid into place widened at the top of the walls and doubled as posts to attach the roof. The top was slanted, causing one open wall to be larger than the other, this would let water and debris slide off to one side, and allow a taller area for entering and exiting. We carved rods out of the left over wood, and drilled them into two of the three trees; creating a ladder of sorts that widened as it got taller.

The finished product was ten foot wide by fifteen feet long. It would give us enough room to move about or sleep comfortably if we needed to spend some time in it. The process wouldn't have been practical without magic, nails would have been used if we hadn't had access to the arcane arts, and it would have taken days as opposed to hours. Magic truly was a wonderful thing. I smiled up at our little tree house. It was always nice to make something instead of always destroying stuff.

We stopped for lunch and the two of us decided to call Svenwhick. I linked our communication mirror to a large display inside the ship and called the charyepchee's name. It took a few rings for him to answer. Sometimes he didn't, if the frog man was hunting or conducting important business he would often wait and call us back later.

We got him on the first try this time. We could tell he was outside but still within the village. A charyepchee smile parted his wide mouth at the sight of us.

"Hello my friends, how are you on this day?" The translation spell was working flawlessly now. We had attempted to learn a bit of each other's language but it proved difficult. Svenwhick could croak out a few words in english, but it made his throat ache. Hermione and I simply couldn't get to the right pitches needed to use their language properly no matter how we tried. He'd often laughed at our attempts, claiming it sounded like gibberish and half formed words. Maybe one day we'd get the hang of it, but it would probably take years of practice.

"We're good Sven, and we found a place to set up our colony." I grinned at him. "A place with natural defenses and sparser land. I think it will hold us all comfortably for the foreseeable future."

"Excellent! I confess I thought it would take you more time to find somewhere adequate. It was a boon to you both to find such a place. And what of your… ward? Did studying the village assist you?"

I nodded. "Without question, it would have taken me weeks longer to find something that would work on my own. Thank you again." He inclined his head with a tilt at that, body language for your welcome. "we plan on moving our ship their shortly. If you want we can come by to a few days, let you see where we're taking up at."

I would be delighted." The three of us talked for several more minutes before ending the call. Sven was needed to break up a fight amongst the village youngsters. The younger charyepchee often warred with each other, mostly for fun and rivalry, but it also had the habit of getting a little out of hand.

Hermione and I looked at each other and grinned. "Ready for this love?"

"I've been waiting on you!"

I laughed at her excitement and started the launch sequence. We took our seats and started. We ran checks on power, making sure everything was in working order. After our encounter with the thieves, I'd been paranoid that we'd missed something, bit all seemed well.

Violet hooted and stuck close to Hermione. He'd never felt the ship hum and vibrate like this and seemed a tad nervous. He was extremely good at picking up on our moods, if we weren't scared he didn't tend to be either. All the same I couldn't blame the little guy if he was a bit trepidatious.

The ship powered up completely and thrummed with magic. Slowly at first we rose into the air. "Everything looks good on my end Harry, so you want to drive or should I?"

Though I'd never admit it to her, I found it funny that flying made Hermione nervous, if she was zipping through the sky under her own power, she was fine, but piloting something, whether a broom, space ship, or anything in between, seemed to fray her nerves.

"I got it if you want love, but it won't hurt my feelings any if you wanna." She nodded and relaxed minutely as I took control. We rose above the tree line and I turned to orient the ship toward our destination.

Then we were off, the ship smoothly cut through the air without a single hiccup. We were a few hundred feet above the tree line, mostly just to avoid clipping one by accident, and had a nice view of the evening suns bathing the forest in an orange-gold light. The world was beautiful and peaceful, from up here at least. The engines hummed slightly as we took it all in, grinning like school children on a Friday afternoon.

The ride went smoothly for a while; now that we were airborne and headed home we weren't in nearly as much of a rush. From the sky we could see for miles, off in the distance I spied the marshlands, and the strange tangled mess that the thieves called home. I felt a vague sense of disappointment it hadn't all burned, but I suppose it was for the best.

A small flock of green and blue bird dragons were flying in a diamond formation off to our right, They beat their four wings in tandem with each other, creating a wave that was rather pretty and choreographed in appearance.

Hermione took in the sights, leaned back in her chair and relaxed as she was. I smiled at that easy going nature she took in sometimes, she had mellowed at lot since her teenage years, but was still the devoted scholar. I loved seeing her just sitting and soaking up the world around her; absorbing the world instead of taking notes on it constantly.

Yes the flight started out smoothly. Which in hindsight should have warned me. I often wondered about fate, did she use a chessboard as her chosen prop to fuck with me? Or had she upgraded her methods? Some sort of video game controller perhaps? I don't know, but I think given the chance I'd smack her in the mouth.

My body warned me before the ship did, a great awful terror seemed to constrict my chest and spread outward from their. It traveled quickly from the center until it gripped me from my fingers to my toes. I heard Violet give out a groan of terror, and Hermione called my name.

"H-harry?! I-I th-think its-" her words were cut off at the sound of roaring fire combined with the world's largest hurricane. I grit my teeth, trying and failing to push away the despair and fear, but it didn't work, because it wasn't natural.

"I-I know. H-hold tight love." My metal hand, unaffected somehow despite my fear. Reached up and pressed several buttons, activating the scrying mirror mounted on the back of ship. It revealed a flying nightmare. The ship began warbling a warning as it came up on screen.

A rolling wall of fire and smoke was quickly approaching us from behind. Massive wings seemed to stretch out from either side of the fire and smoke, miles long. The smoke rippled out of the opening making a trail through the sky behind it, obscuring its true shape. A warbling sound pierced our ears, making our teeth chatter and eyes water, I saw a small trickle of blood begin to leak from Hermione's nose.

My metal hand grabbed the controls and I tried to get it off our tail. Last time it had flown passed, perhaps it would again. But this time, it decided we were worth the trouble. It was like staring into a pit, a portal to hell itself, but it could move, follow you no matter where you went.

I could only think of one thing that might help us. I closed my eyes and did my best to block out the terror, I was not successful. With a deep breath I conjured images of Hermione, the quiet moments we had during peace, discovering a new world and saving the human race. I focused on Hermione the most, she had always made me so happy.

My eyes snapped open, I had a fraction of a second of perfectly clarity, and I snatched it like a drowning man holds onto a life preserver. Expecto Patronum!"

Three animals of silver light burst forth from my hand. A wolf, a dolphin, and a stag. I felt momentarily surprised, I hadn't seen prongs in ages. The terror fled quickly, I sent the wolf to guard Hermione, and the dolphin swam through the air to wrap around Violet. Prongs stayed with me as I leapt from my seat, fear vanquished with happiness.

"Hermione, take control love, I'm going top side to see if I cant deter this asshole." Her mind was razor sharp again with the lack of fear.

"Be careful Harry, and for the love of Merlin don't forget your sticking charms, I don't want to see you turning into a smear if you fall off and smash into the ground."

I thought about reminding her I could fly but decided not to. The longer I waited, the closer it got, and it wasn't that far to begin with now.

I made my way to the rear of the ship and opened a hatch that lead topside. The wind made my hair and clothes ripple. I rose into the air, immediately being buffeted by the fierce wind, and stood on the ship. My feet snapped to the haul, almost magnetically. My patronus stood next to me, a guardian against the darkness, unaffected by the wind. I glared at the roaring wall of fire and terror.

"Come and get me you bastard!"

A/N: another one down folks, I've managed to stick to my new writing schedule so far, and even though my body hates getting up so early to write, my imagination is really enjoying it. I hope you all are liking this. Quick question, I've been thinking about going back and fixing up Future of Ruin a bit, bugs me how many little errors I missed the first time around. There wont be any plot changes, though I had an idea about adding an extra chapter about 3/4 the way through it. Let me know what you think.

Pleasant days and long nights,

Harkon


	9. On the Wings of Madness

"Come and get me you bastard!" The wind tore at my clothes and made my eyes water. If my feet hadn't been stuck to the haul, id have been ripped away, straight into the mouth of hell.

A horrific hot rush stole over me, its wings beat so hard they canceled out the wind at my back with every flap. The stink of sulfur was powerful, and I could see, despite its massive size that it was gaining on us. Nothing that large could move that fast, it had to be propelled with magic as well as wing.

It had no head to attack, the body was obscured by the wall of fire and smoke that made up its mouth, the terrible opening that didn't bite or snap, merely consumed all that was before it. I raised my hands into the air and grit my teeth, a blast of primordial viridian energy shot forward from my hands. The attack would vaporize a lesser being, but the fire consumed it.

I had hoped to tear straight through but to no avail. I sent blasts and lances of power out wide, attempting to clip a wing. Several of my attacks landed; but it was so massive they did little more than a paper cut would in my hand. Annoying but hardly life threatening. Then, something emerged from within. Beasts of flame, like the bastard children of bats, scorpions, and fire leapt from the smoke. They charged, swooping down fast and hard. I doused some with water, removing them from existence, and battered away others with a hailstorm of ice. Fire would do no good, and lightning passed through them. I conjured a shield of sorts, a sphere of water that surrounded me. They crashed into it with abandon, the water began to boil, the more that crashed into my shield, the hotter the water became until it sizzled away as steam.

I created whips of poison in my hands, sickly purple liquid that quivered and danced. I snapped them out of the air. One came low and I missed. I jumped, barely dodged it and felt my legs buckle, nearly snapping backward at the knee as I landed at the very edge of the ship. I back peddled against the wind, mindful to keep at least one leg planted on the ship at all times; if I jumped again at this angle, I'd go careening off into the sky.

The monster made of fire had circled around. It crashed into my back as I fended off those in front, catching my shirt on fire. I swore as my skin blistered and doused the both of us with water. I ignored the pain as best I could and knocked more of the beasts from the air with ice. Had to do something, it was growing closer by the second.

The size of the monstrosity was almost too much to believe. A dozen dragons could have slid into that opening with room to spare. I raised my hands, mind whirling, trying to think. I activated mage sight, and winced at the bright, sickly orange color of the thing's magic. Nothing I did slowed it down, in fact it didn't seem to even notice that I was attacking it.

With a flourish I weaved a ward into the air. The magic rich atmosphere proved all the anchor it needed as my dark, stormy magic interwove with the brightness of Faye. It slammed into the ward. Halting almost instantly in the air. I had made this one with no give at all. It should have been like plowing into a wall at hundreds of miles and hour.

The ship gained a lead then, and I thought maybe, just maybe I had contained it, given us enough of a break to escape. The opening roared, an awful deep and old sound. The fire grew hotter, brighter, and the smoke churned and billowed faster. I watched in fascination and terror as it burned through my ward.

There was a snap of not-sound in the air as it tore through completely; my magic dissipated into fading, smoking ribbons. It had burned my magic. Its wings beat faster and it picked up speed. Within seconds it had regained what it had lost, and was now pulling even closer. I felt panic well up in me at the sight. It was so utterly massive.

The wall of rolling flame and smoke filled my vision; I'd have to nearly spin around to see anything else but the churning wall of death before me. I couldn't let it end like this, I refused. My love was on the shop below me, doing her damnedest to stay in front of it, and I wouldn't let her die, not like this, not ever.

I felt it bubbling within me, that power that called for blood, for revenge. The lust of battle made my vision fill with red. I struggled against the strange power for a moment, before letting go.

My body heated and smoked; it started as sparks of green dancing across my skin. I flashed, once, twice, three times; and then it was free. My body glowed and my worry and aches faded as I glowed hot like a green sun. My features swam for a moment before fading away, leaving an outline growing bright enough to blind someone if they dared to look at me for longer than a scant few seconds.

My pain faded vanished as did my exhaustion. The velvety panic in me faded to be replaced, with a calm and anger so strong it pushed away all other emotions. It came to me then, an idea, a plan. Something so bat shit insane It could just work. I released the sticking charms from my feet, ; they were so hot they left scorched footprints in the ship's haul.

I rose higher into the air, keeping pace with the ship before I darted forward, barreling like a green comet; straight into the wall of fire and smoke.

2.

A small part of me screamed at the stupidity, it begged and pleaded, why was I doing this? What could bring me to believe that this was a good idea? It beat against the walls of rage and cold that came with power, but it was useless. I was more now, driven, vengeance had to be served against this thing, this flying work that dared to attack me and mine. It would pay.

I dived into the smoke.

3.

Smoke rolled across me, fired licked me, tasting my strength; it recoiled. The patronus faded but it did not matter, there was no fear to be had. Deeper into the maul I went, this demonic trench of a throat. Ghosts of smoke and fire sneered at me from the sides, some hissing, others attacking. My sheer brightness atomized those that came to close. It was growing hotter in front of me. What felt like a near mile ahead, was a glowing ember. It was so hot it was white in color; that's what fed the beast its fire.

The energy that had enveloped, or replaced, my body stretched out, my arms became scythes as I sliced deep groves into the beast's inner walls. Boiling rivers of molten fluid spewed out and bubbled, dribbling down below. I released a blade, sent it flying into the dark where it struck. For the briefest of moments I saw daylight on the other side of the impact before the wound closed, filling with more magma like blood. That white flame grew closer as I sped up, the world blurring. A voice seemed to whisper in my ear.

"We have seen your truth face, we know what haunts you, fallen one. Guardian without a world. The mighty, lost and cast into the void." An apparition appeared in the smoke. It was Him. He cycled, taking shape after shape, life after life. The phantom attacked me, each form brought something new; something from that time He had used in times of war. Legions of undead phantoms leapt at me but I battered them aside. This thing from my past; it was nothing, a shadow made of memories. He was gone, dead a final time at my hands; or as good as. I burst through the shadow; and came to the burning whiteness at the center. It moved. I watched as a huge figure clad in the demonic fire rose from a throne of blood and bone. It snarled at me and lifted a sword that sung of void and erasement.

I called forth my power. Twin blades of viridian energy formed in either hand. The horned, burning thing snarled and spoke. "You dare, a maggot of the dirt, a warlock of pale power, one that only wields the smallest spark of Flame. You dare face a god?"

"I dare. I have slain gods before, another will be nothing new."

It leapt at me then. Our blades crossed and I batted one blow aside and dug the tip of one blade in its side. It roared then, not in pain but laughter.

It moved, my blade still buried within and swung again. The attack was strong and knocked me wide. This demon kicked me, dislodging my sword and sent me back reeling.

It attacked again, pressing me backward; but I was not beaten. We ducked and weaved, our swords of light clashing with a thrum of sparks. It nicked my arm, one leg and my side but I felt no pain. There was only the need, a need to kill and destroy.

Power radiated off its form. Lightning crackled against me, preventing me from moving for just a moment; but still there was no pain.

Fire waved across my body but I ignored the added heat. It kicked me as I stood paralyzed and sent me into the insides of the flying beast's quivering flesh.

The thing brought the sword down, to cleave down the middle of me but I rolled out of its path. I brought my own up and jabbed it forward, sticking it into the white fire. It howled and kicked me again. My ribs would have shattered at impact if I were any normal man but I was quick to recover; a strange pressure from the attack had replaced pain and I dove for it snarling.

I twisted in the air, avoiding two more attacks and buried both blades deep within it. This thing whatever it was, staggered as viridian met white. I had pierced it and my energy stabbed it straight through, protruding from its back.

I twisted them and ripped them out sideways. It swayed, liquid light spilled from it and pooled below, oozing from the massive cuts, but it would not die. A massive hand reached out and grabbed me by the head. It squeezed but this strange power that now coated every bit of me, inside and out, stopped it from crushing me flat.

I dropped my blades and scrabbled at that hand, tearing at the wrist intent on getting it off of me. I felt the first sign of tremors, and a deep burning had started at my center. I scratched and ripped at the hand but it held on stubbornly.

It raised its other hand, blade gripped tightly, and drove it toward me, intent on skewering me straight through. I released the wrist and caught the blade with the flats of both hands. The blade slid between them until the point came to rest against my chest, poking me slightly.

It pushed harder, so I held tighter; not letting it dig in deeper. The burning was growing worse now, and so were the tremors. That tiny voice, buried under the wall of instinct and anger howled in terror. It knew how close things had suddenly became, even if I couldn't acknowledge it right now. That same screaming part of me was bewildered at this creature. Its strength, its origins, and at the words it had spoken, in my own language. How was this possible, what was this beast, this… abomination.

I coated my foot with power, drawing deep on reserves I didn't think I had and kicked it in the dribbling wound i'd made moments before. I felt it weaken then. Its grip on my head and its blade loosened, and I kicked it again. And then again. It dropped me, that massive arm losing its titan like strength.

I held onto the sword tightly and kicked it one final time. It released its blade then and fell back, roaring in anger and I hoped pain. The blade vanished as it lost contact with its master and I staggered, dropping to one knee. My chest heaved and the tremors increased. I flashed, for just a moment the power in me faded, trying to sleep again but I snarled and slapped it awake. I held on stubbornly, knowing if I lost that power now I was surely dead. I stood as quickly as I could, refusing to show weakness.

The thing of heat and fire observed me hatefully. It got its feet beneath itself and stood. I was on high alert, eyes taking in every detail. It was true that I had wounded it terribly, but it was far from dead, if something like that could actually die. I doubted if it was truly alive. Perhaps just some defense mechanism of the flying terror. Maybe it was the creature's master, or maybe it was its true shape. I knew not, and I doubt I could find out. This thing, whatever it might have been, was a corrupted blight on existence.

"I will tear your power from you human. You and your kind will not have my world. I have seen into you mind, a broken thing. There will never be peace for you, your kind is incapable." Quickly, almost without thought, both of my hands shot forward, a destructive wave of power leaping from both hands. The beam struck it in its not-face and vaporized it from the shoulders up. The body teetered, seemed to reel for a moment before collapsing backward into the throne it had risen from.

The light did not vanish, but dimmed, and the voice still spoke on, but now it came from everywhere instead of the mouth that no longer existed.

"Enjoy this small victory Guardian, it may very well be your last, my power is ever lasting, and your light WILL be snuffed out."

I felt a tremor go up through the flying monstrosity, and my feet found themselves hovering over air before I plummeted. One moment I had been deep insides its guts, the next I was in mid air, and falling. It was as if it had apparated, and left me behind, hanging in open air. I fell like a stone. I gathered my power beneath me, ready to use it to hold me up, when our ship came into view. It swooped low beneath me and stopped two dozen feet below. My magic slowed as I landed on the hull. I staggered to the hatch. The power around me flickered a final time and died as I reached the opening.

I screamed then, oh gods the pain was immense. My vision swam and darkened as I lowered into the ship proper. I had just enough time to give my panicked wife a pained smile, before consciousness fled from me, and the world went black.

4.

The world returned, slowly. I felt like some time must have passed. For one it was dark now, and for another I could hear voices. One was of my wife. She sounded exhausted and fretful, the other had that odd tinge I associated with translation spells. She had taken me to the Charyepchee, but why? What had happened now? I could remember returning to the ship. I remembered building the lookout and heading for our new home… then, ah, it came back to me then. All of it.

Attacked by the flying beast, and then the worse thing buried within, I remembered it vanishing after my last attack. I may have left it headless, but somehow I doubted it was truly dead, especially considering it spoke to me without a mouth.

My everything was hurting again. Those wounds that had only felt like a strange pressure with my new strange power, now howled in protest without it. My head, chest and side were the worst, and gods how my ribs ached.

I cracked open a bleary eye and looked up at the woman I'd married. "I'm… sorry."

She jumped and looked down at me, coming close instantly and shushing me. I shook my head and instantly regretted it.

"So sorry… this new power of ours, it is dangerous. Maybe as dangerous to us, as it is to an enemy."

"Quiet Harry, you need to rest. You were nearly dead when I rushed you here. Your wounds… I couldn't heal some of them for some reason. But Svenwhick had a healer, a very old healer, managed to work some magic to help. But you must rest. We can speak again when you wake."

I nodded vaguely and said, "love you." Before I drifted off again, just barely hearing her return the sentiment.

5.

I drifted in and out for several days before I finally snapped all the way awake. I still ached but it was less now. I looked down at my bare chest and saw red angry welts there, one on my side and another where its blade had just barely poked at me. My flesh hand felt scolded, red and tender, and me head; gods above my head ached where it had grabbed me and squeezed.

"It is good to see you awake friend." Svenwhick's tone was soft, but also held a note of awe I didn't like much. "Your mate, she told us what you did, you are brave Harry, and perhaps a bit foolish." There was a trace of dry humor in his voice, and I couldn't blame him.

I chuckled, trying not to wince at the strain on my broken ribs. "Im not known for always thinking things through in the heat of the moment. I was hell bent on protecting Hermione. And I will always do so with little thought to myself. She is strong, supremely so. The true distinction between our power is a small one, but I have always been… harder than her."

He nodded solemnly at this. "The beast you fought, we call it the Phar'ok, eater of all. None of us have ever felled one before, and we have tried. It has killed many warriors of our kind, and now we do little more than avoid it. It rarely touches the ground in the land below, but when it does… it consumes many."

"Have you ever seen more than one together?"

He shook his head. "I have not, but my father did when he was a small boy. The elders at the time believed them to be a mated pair, the parents of monsters. We do not know how, but they have birthed many of the horrors seen on our world, our tales say that a great number of them have been seen crawling from their… mouths. They have always been, as far back as my people can remember, but never more than two have been seen together."

I nodded at that, and was struck with a sudden thought. "Svenwhick, the enemies of old you used to share this world with, the ones you warred with that led to your people becoming what they now are, what did they look like?"

He seemed surprised at this and frowned slightly. "I can not tell you for certain, those tales are old, ancient before my grandfather's time. The stories say they could use magic and technology to take different shapes; some as crazed beasts, others more refined. but I know not, the truth of these words. You would have better luck speaking to an elder my friend."

I felt a chill go down my back at his words, and did my best to school my features. No need to scare him on a hunch. I would speak more on this to him later. Him and the elders of his village. "Where is my wife, my friend?"

He smiled at that. "She is playing with some of our children, I will fetch her for you."

"Thank you." I sat up in my bed, ignoring the pain that still jolted me like a static shock and waited for Hermione. It didn't take her long. She came rushing in and sat on my bed, hugging me tightly. I could feel her suppressing tears and felt like a massive ass.

"Im so sorry love, I lost it. All I could think of was that it was going to get us, get you. That I had to do something to stop it. That power… it changes how we think, makes us too focused, too bloodthirsty."

She didn't say anything for some time, just held me tight and cried softly on my shoulder. I held her as well as I could, rubbing small circles in my back despite the pain in my hand.

She pulled back and looked at me, eyes still glistening. "As soon as you feel better, we're going to train, like we haven't in a very long time. I cant lose you Harry, you're my anchor and I love you. You're all I have. We're going to train this power, until we control it, instead of the other way around."

I nodded solemnly in agreement, we would have to. I couldn't lose her either, its hard to tell what kind of monster id revert to then. "Its almost like being a different person. I can still feel who I am, but it's a tiny voice in the back of my head, a voice easily ignored."

She nodded, shuddering slightly. I knew it was the same for her. "Harry, what happened there? Inside? When the beast vanished, when you made it back inside… you wounds are like you were fighting something."

So I told her. I told her of the fire and smoke beasts, and the awful bright flame I met inside. Like always, I left nothing out. She seemed disturbed by the time I finished.

"Its like a ship. A ship of nightmares." I started at that, I'd had similar thoughts in my semiconscious state, only half remembered until she brought it up.

"Remember Svenwhick telling us the legends of their enemies? The ones that destroyed their ancient civilization? I think what I was fighting was a remnant of them, perhaps the last of them, or the last that knows of what they once were at least."

I told her my hunch about the raptor bears as well, they were the only other species we'd encountered with language other than the Charyepchee.

"Maybe their the remnants of a group of soldiers that have forgotten their origins, or the last bit of them and they've lost the ability to change shape. I don't think we'd ever know for sure without being able to speak to them, and based off our only real encounter… I suspect we'll never know for sure."

I nodded at that. From what little we'd seen, they didn't seem particularly friendly even amongst themselves. I'd guess they'd be violent toward any outsiders, even if we met under friendly circumstances.

"It concerns me that you had trouble healing my wounds. I wonder why that is?" Hermione looked sullen, like she blamed herself. I took her hand and squeezed it. "Its not your fault Mione, it was my own stupidity that got me so hurt. When we're… like that, pain doesn't seem to register. I never really felt the effects of any of the attacks, just a pressure. The pain didn't start until after."

"The village healer believed it's the nature of how different our magic is from their's. It seems compatible in many ways, but almost antagonistic in others. Like how our translation spells work so well, but at the same time our wards did very little good. I watched as the healer worked on you. She only used her magic to pull other bits from the environment. We'll have to look into modifying our healing magic next it seems."

I nodded. Our own stuff would work fine for more mundane injuries, but anything directly inflicted with magic could cause problems.

"Good thing I married a genius, I'd be clueless otherwise."

She gave me a watery smile and held me tight, kissing me gently. "Once you feel up to it I think we should speak to Svenwhick and his father about this, let them know what you discovered."

I nodded. " I want to ask the elders some questions as well, see if I can gleam anything else from their legends."

I'd started to feel a bit better after waking. I was still tender, and I could feel the slightest of tremors still, but better. I always healed fast and now that I was conscious I had been putting a little energy into speeding up the process. The scolded look of my hand had faded some since I'd woken up. I moved my legs off the bed and stood slowly with caution. The briefest moment of lightheadedness hit me, but I suspected that might have been the general lack of food since before my fight. I smiled at Hermione as I conjured a set of clothes for myself. They wouldn't last forever, conjurations never did, but these would do for now.

"Im feeling much better, lets get out of here before a healer shows up and insists I need bed rest."

She rolled her eyes at me and sighed. " you do need bed rest, but I also know that arguing with you about it would be about it as easy as convincing a tree stump to tap dance."

I laughed a little and took her hand. We walked slowly out of the cozy tree hut and into the village proper.

The sky had taken on an orange tinge, Faye strange drawn out sunset was about half finished. Another hour or so and true dusk would be here. I felt my tremors fade more as I walked and stretched my legs, the scolding was fading at a much slower rate, but given how I'd come by those injuries I considered myself lucky.

I sighed, we wanted a safe world to help train Earth's survivors, a place where they could grow and thrive. Faye was a beautiful place, with many wonders, but I don't think the word 'safe' could ever be used in a proper description. Not much we could do about it now though.

The charyepchee were going about their business, adults were wrapping up their final chores of the day, children played and ran in the street. I watched a few of them playing with what looked like a large six legged flying squirrel. A pet I suppose. Svenwhick was across the village's open center, speaking to his father. That was good, I'd wanted to speak to both of them anyway. We crossed the round empty area, hand in hand, all that it contained was a large pile of wood in the center, a fire would be built shortly, and a a community dinner would begin to be cooked.

Svenwhick saw us first, he started slightly at seeing me on my feet but smiled a wide charyepchee smile and beckoned us closer. "Hello my friend, feeling better?"

I nodded. " I'm getting there, luckily for me I heal quickly."

Hermione sighed, "you should, you've had plenty of practice."

Instar, Svenwhick's father, chuckled at this. "It is pleasant to see you both again. Though the circumstances could have been better."

I nodded again. "Its true, I was wondering, would it be possible to have a meeting with you two and your council? There are things I've discovered I feel need sharing, and perhaps you could shed some light on those events."

He paused to consider this for a moment before he nodded his head. Hermione and I had been a little surprised that this was a bit of body language that both our species shared. Giving a negative was different though, they tended to tilt their heads to the side instead of shaking them, the charyepchee's neck muscles made that kind of gesture difficult.

"I will speak to them on your behalf, after this evening's meal would be best, our elder's tend to fuss if they haven't eaten."

This made me smile, "Don't we all? That's fine with us Instar."

He smiled and nodded again. "You both of course are welcome to stay and partake. Our village seems to find you endlessly fascinating." His thin lips quirked, " if not a bit ugly."

I laughed deeply at this. The human form was quite strange to these people, as strange as their's was to us, but a bit of good natured ribbing never bothered me much. "Did I ever tell you about frogs from our world? Little hopping animals you bare a striking resemblance to, we used to eat them."

It was his turn to laugh and give a little no-shrug. "I don't believe so, I hope my face doesn't make you hungry."

I grinned. " As long as dinner is as good as ever I don't think you have much to worry about." He grinned.

We let Instar and his son get back to their business and we walked about the village. We admired the simple but beautiful architecture and made our way through. Within a few minutes we came to the outside edges of the village and to the coral they used for their livestock.

Hermione and I called them land crabs, but that didn't do the creatures justice. These things were massive, about the size of a buffalo, and lacked the claws of their name sake. They came in a variety of colors and scuttled about on six legs. They had eye stalks, four of course, that could swivel all the way around. It was strange to watch, but the creatures were rather docile. Some of them were ridden by charyepchee, these were larger, and were used to herd the smaller ones into pens where they slept.

Most of their meat came from the critters, and they used them for herding purposes and transportation. It struck me then that I don't believe I'd seen an animal yet that produced an sort of milk and wondered at that. I guess if it had never evolved, people didn't have need of it here. The climate of the forest of singing trees was nearly tropical, Svenwhick had mentioned once that temperatures stayed fairly consistent year round, and I wondered idly if snow fell on this world. We hadn't seen any at any rate; but we had seen little in the larger scheme of things. We watched idly for a while as the scuttling land crabs were slowly herded into their pens for the night. They made a rather high pitched chiming sound, almost like a buzzing whistle. When true dark was close, we returned to the village center and watched as the fire was lit.

The charyepchee lit it with magic, and the flame cycled through several bright colors before settling on orange, a tad brighter than natural flame. Great spits had been placed over the fire and everyone took turns rotating them so the meat cooked evenly. Vegetables were hung above them flame in baskets made of blackened roots and vines.

It was a comfortable atmosphere, the chores of the day had been completed, and people lounged about and talked idly. I caught snippets of conversation about Hermione and I. Some seemed intrigued about my fight with the phar'ok. I couldn't blame them. It had been a hard fight; and reminded me that this new power had to be tamed, and soon.

My tremors were gone now, and while I could still feel the raised irritated skin under my shirt, it wasn't nearly as tender as before. My hand and head still thrummed dully, but that too was fading. I was glad the beast's burning flame had spared my hair at least. A hand print would have made an odd bald patch.

Hermione and I both took turns rotating the spits, even the children got in on this particular chore. Just before the last sliver of sun disappeared, the food was finished. Thin slivers of polished bark were used as plates as the food was set on several low tables. The charyepchee formed several lines, children in the front, and they moved about orderly, everyone getting a bit of what they liked.

Being guests, of a sort anyway, Hermione and I stood in line just behind the children. The steaming meats made my mouth water as we both heaped our plates full, and found a comfortable place to sit around the fire.

We watched, fascinated by the similarities, and difference between the charyepchee and human societies. It was common practice for someone to tell a story during the evening meal. The stories came in two varieties: fictional tales primarily to entertain, and history lessons, legends, and myths.

We watched, fascinated as an older Charyepchee described an adventure, father and mother, rescuing their first born from the Stilted Lands. That's the Charyepchee's name for the belted mountain range that divided Faye unevenly.

This being for entertainment, the mother and father triumphed, escaping with their baby girl and returning home; "Happy to the end of their days."

A legend would have had them failing.

The meal was finished leisurely. The tale, while not terribly long, still took more than an hour to finish.

The Charyepchee croaked in appreciation, their overlapping signals created an incredible humming that drowned out everything else.

Hermione and I clapped with enthusiasm.

People were returning to their homes to turn in for the evening; when Instar approached.

"The elders will see you now."

"Thank you Instar," I turn to look at Hermione and smile. "Come on love, I know you've been itchy to get to this."

She grinned and took my hand. Looking at him, she said "thank you Instar, please, lead the way."

Well there's chapter 9 everybody. I hope everyone is enjoying this little story, one more chapter and we'll be having a bit of a time skip, they've got to bring humanity to the surface eventually after all. As a side note, the formatting of my chapters keeps getting screwed up, bold and italic words, such as translations aren't working properly for me for some reason, chapter should still be perfectly readable, but I'm going to try to mess around and find the problem

See you lot next week.


	10. Palaver

Instar lead us into one of the buildings located on the ground. It was a long house of sorts, primarily used for town meetings and as an emergency gathering place. The tables inside were scattered about and round, it wasn't used very often and had a slightly dusty feel to it, but not dirty. A few glowing lights illuminated the place, bathing the nearly empty room in a soft yellow light.

On the far end sat the village elders. A group of Charyepchee that had their molted skin tones fade with time, most of them were bone white now, one was blind except for his magic seeing eyes. Those of the more mundane variety had went cloudy. Another of them sat smoking a strange pipe, producing little puffs of green, mossy smelling smoke.

We bowed to them respectfully and waited until Instar took his seat before we sat ourselves. The group of seven elders included Instar, but he was by far the youngest of the lot. His position amongst them was mostly ceremonial at this point, and he wouldn't be considered a true elder until his son took his place as leader of their village.

The group of old ones, this almost had me laughing, I imagine Hermione and I are both much older, me especially, sat looking at us for a few long moments before one of them spoke up.

"If we must sit and talk, then the pipe will be passed as well, it is tradition to share smoke if we are to Palaver, visitors."

I nodded at that and took the pipe from the smoker. I had always enjoyed the occasional smoke, but it was something Hermione wasn't used to. Still, when in Rome…

The smoke had a tangy earthy taste that almost tickled instead of burned. I didn't hold the smoke long before passing it to my wife. She took it like a champ, only letting out the tiniest of coughs as she released her own smoke. The rather large ornate pip was passed along to everyone, and the true speaking began.

One elder, with a bit of moss growing under his chin grinned toothlessly at us. "The smoking helps these old brains remember better, and will help you retain what we need to tell."

I grinned myself and took the pipe for a second round. It caused a slight headiness, a small buzzing radiated from the base of my neck. "Of course, I'm sure that's all there is to it."

The blind elder chuckled at me words and then spoke. "Harry, if I may call you buy your given name," I nodded at this, "Instar tells us you have news to share, and questions to ask, which of us shall go first?"

I took a deep breath and my hand sought Hermione's. She took it willingly with a small smile. "If its alright with you, I would like to have my questions first, it might help me make more sense of what I saw, so that I could explain it better myself."

The blind elder nodded his head at that. "Alright then, ask your questions traveler."

"I asked Instar earlier, about the race the charyepchee butted heads with long ago, your rivals, and ultimately your enemies." The elders sat and studied me as I spoke. "I asked them what they looked like, he didn't know much, not that I blame him, this was long before his time, any of your times, but maybe a great grandfather or grandmother might have remembered."

"Aye, my grandmother was a girl, when we believed the last great group of them dead. Perhaps a few stragglers after, but not many."

"What did she have to say of them? How they looked or acted?"

The elder in question stroked the side of his head with an old finger and thought.

"If memory serves me right, they had a brutal society, a caste system I believe. A triangle, one on top, with many below. They were shape changers, if one rose from a lower caste to a higher one, they would take a new form to match their status. I don't know much about this mind you, I was young myself when I was told the stories. They have lost favor with younger generations i'm afraid."

The elder in question, a female, glared at Instar playfully as if it was all his fault. "But I know of something. The lower castes often seemed like animals, great shaggy beasts of war. The higher one would climb, the more refined they appeared."

I nodded at that. "Did any of them happen to take on elements in their forms?"

She frowned at me words. "I have no direct memory of this, not to say it isn't true, but I have no memory of it."

Another spoke up then at hearing this. "I think so, those that served in the army as leaders could take an elements and weave it into their form. Different elements for different individuals, personal preference, or based off of position I believe."

I nodded again, growing more apprehensive. "Did they war with each other?"

Here the old woman began speaking again. "That was one thing always made clear to us. They fought each other as much as anyone else. Its how they rose to power amongst themselves. Infighting was natural. A part of their lives."

I nodded, things were lining up in a way that I was afraid they would. "What happened to them all?"

Hesitation at that question, why was I not surprised?

Mossy chin spoke up for the first time now. " these are more legends than fact mind you, even what we told you was old news when we were but hatchlings." I simply nodded in understanding and he continued. "Most of them were lost in the war. We retreated after a time, heading into the forests and forgetting about the burned lands and destroyed husks of our old cities. But they did not. Once we weren't there for them to fight us over the scraps, they fought each other. The land was sick, and continued to be for years afterward. It's safe now, but just breathing the air could make you mad, and kill you slowly, so it was said anyway. Most of them perished then. Afterward, when there weren't even enough left to war amongst each other, the broke up into small clans, and fled. Those clans fought each other until only a handful of their race remained, and they just blew away in time."

We all sat quietly for a bit after that.

"How long has it been since one had been seen? Has it happened in living memory?"

The smoker frowned as he passed his pipe along. "I believe I saw one once as a small boy. It was old, older than I am now, and terribly lonely. Mad and confused with it. My father killed it, just at the edge of the plateau. Not another since, nearly two hundred years ago that was."

The charyepchee lived longer lives than I had thought. "This is perhaps, the foggiest question I have to ask, do you know anything about their technology? How they built and made things?"

Mossy chin had words for this question. "Not much, no details for sure. We believed them to be thieves and perverters. They were known for taking what we had and changing it to fit their purposes, but we know little of what we ourselves had. We have lost most of what you call technology, we've retained more of our magic from that time than anything else. Old stories say they grew machines, but I do not know how, nor do I know what kind of machines they may have been."

I nodded in thanks at his words and sat silently. I had no more questions that I thought they could answer. But I also believed I'd gotten enough to confirm my theory. The charyepchee had never mentioned another race as intelligent as their own. Other than their old enemies. I supposed it was possible, but I didn't think so.

The smoker passed me the pipe and I drew from it once more, still thinking. He asked me then, "do you have more questions, Harry?"

I shook my head and spoke. "I'll always have more questions, but I don't think you have answers for the rest. I think its my turn to talk now."

So I began, I left little out. I didn't tell them of this new power Hermione and I had discovered, and I skipped over the more grizzly details of my encounters, but the rest I included. I paid extra attention to physical appearance and behavior, since those points seemed to match the closest.

Their was silence in the meeting hall after I was finished. Instar was the first of the lot to speak, it was the first time he'd spoken in this impromptu meeting.

"Into the mountains you went? We rarely venture into the Stilted Lands. I will admit that these creatures bare a remarkable similarity to our stories. They spoke you said? A strange language different from our own?"

I nodded. "We used a spell much like the one we use so we can all speak easily. It didn't have as much time to work, so we only caught certain words… but I can tell you they had nothing friendly to say."

Hermione chimed in. "Mostly talked about killing us as bloody a fashion as possible." I laughed with little humor at her words.

"Its true, they were certainly… enthusiastic though. They fought with such abandon, if they felt pain you could scarcely tell. The only way to stop one was to cripple it. Then they just started howling for reinforcements. And those came quickly."

"And this other thing you fought, in the belly of the Phar'ok?"

"I don't know, the living thing sitting in its guts never mentioned them. But it did pursue us. And that never happened before. As long as we got out of the way it had never chased us before. That's why I was intrigued by the shape shifting and the element it seemed made of."

Perhaps a general had made himself king over his lesser, more animal like brethren. Maybe he'd grown lethargic with age, and we were simply the first interesting thing it had seen in centuries. If they had the power to change shapes, I doubt long lived lives would be beyond their reach.

The blind Charyepchee spoke next. "We stay out of those mountains, we like it much better down here in our forests. The plateau as you call it is a strange place, full of danger. Perhaps they have merely stuck it it these last centuries, daring to not descend, just as we don't dare to rise up. You say it spoke to you? After removing its head? Thats an interesting trick."

"I have a theory that its true self was hiding, that perhaps I was only fighting an avatar, or perhaps its life force is tied to the phar'ok's. I didn't get to hang around, it vanished leaving me in midair shortly after that."

Mossy chin gave a charyepchee chuckle at that. "You scared it lad, I'd have run too I think."

I grinned at him, "just don't try to eat me and we shouldn't have any problems." We talked a while longer, comparing information and details. The elders concluded that I was probably right, that we had discovered some long lost clan that had managed to survive. They were less clear on what the phar'ok held.

"On that we cannot say. Our records are mostly lost, and it had been so long since it had been openly hostile toward us. Like you say, I wonder if its merely lethargy, or perhaps boredom at causing the same kind of trouble for so long. We couldn't say, not for sure. If we had a good look at this creature perhaps we could say, but such a prospect would be beyond dangerous."

I nodded at that. "Yes, it didn't come across as something that would let itself be captured. I removed its head and yet it spoke, given that I don't know of a way I could contain it. Perhaps separated from the phar'ok, but with it? That would take some serious thinking."

We talked for a while longer, but had moved onto other things. We spoke of the colonists, and of Earth. I told them of our plan, how we wanted to become a part of Faye, that we had no desire to rule or concur, we just wanted to live, as best we could.

"A noble goal if any. You have met challenges since arriving, but we believe you have dealt with them as best you could. I would suggest staying clear of the mountains. As you have discovered, that is where the true darkness of our world rests."

I knew Hermione's curiosity would end up sending us back one day, but we would be far more cautious in the future. The both of us had our work cut out for us, we would have much magic to create between now and then, and a colony to build as well.

The talk slowed then before stopping. The elders bid us good luck, and offered us help in any way they could. We thanked them for the help they gave, and promised to share anymore revelations we might come to.

Hermione had managed to park the ship just outside the village. She'd covered it in one of our new wards before rushing me to a healer. I still felt a bit on the weak side, but had healed up nicely enough.

We bid Instar and Svenwhick a good night, and returned to our home. I thought briefly about flying us on to the colony site but decided against it. It was far to late into the night, and sleepiness had slipped her fingers into all of our heads. Violet was out in seconds upon going inside. He had headed straight for the little bed we'd made for him and fell asleep instantly, tiny purple body sprawled out over the child sized mattress.

Hermione and I fell to our own bed, wrapped in each others arms, and were asleep in moments.

2.

We rose early the next morning as the suns began to rise in the sky, and set off. We were cautious and flew extra slow, keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of the phar'ok.

Perhaps we wouldn't have to deal with it for some time, maybe it would try to kill us before lunch. We didn't know, but wouldn't be taking any chances.

The ship landed gently in the small clearing we had made. I allowed the engine to fade and sleep, we wouldn't need to fly again for some time, not until we returned to space to get our sleeping friends. If we so chose, we could activate the ship's other form; it would change shape and shift into something a bit more house like in appearance, but left it alone for now. The two of us stepped out of our ship and into Faye's crisp morning. Violet was still asleep, and we saw no reason to wake him just yet. Our ward had held nicely, and seemed to have no problem anchoring itself into Faye's natural magic.

I yawned, scratching my stomach idly and smiled to Hermione. "Breakfast?"

She grinned back and nodded. The pair of us ate, the smell of cooking food woke Violet in a hurry. After the three of us had our fill we went about setting up camp. Things were moved back outside, tables and chairs mostly, and a tarp was hung over, making for a makeshift porch of sorts. It would keep the rain out at least. Hermione's collection of jars and samples were placed back in their proper areas, displayed in several cabinets that lined the back of the tables.

Once our home was back in order, we decided to walk the big cleft we were going to use as our first colony. Not much of anything had changed; the stacked wood still sat in its place, the grasses still relatively short and no new animals had managed to sneak passed our wards. All seemed good. We headed for the 'entrance' to our new settlement. Entrance was a bit of a stretch, the open area was around a hundred yards across after all.

We walked hand in hand, our eyes roamed over everything in this place we hoped to make our home. It was peaceful here, more so than in many places across Faye. This alien world was rather wild, untamed for centuries. We didn't want to tame it, but hoped to befriend it all the same.

We came to our ward and began walking to the left, the closest rock wall lay in that direction. Everything seemed in order; no weak spots to speak of. After that we walked the length in the other direction, and again found nothing amiss.

"So what's first on a ever growing list of things that need doing oh fearless leader?"

I laughed at Mione's words. "Well, usually in a situation like this, building a shelter would be first, after food and water of course, but we have all those things covered. So to answer your first question, the first thing we must do is build a wall. We need to close off this big entrance. Make a gate so there's only one way in or out."

She frowned slightly at that and I could actually see her gathering her thoughts. "But what about the ward? It should work much better than any gate could, and ought to keep everything out that we don't want in here."

I nodded. "You're right, this version does seem to keep out what we want, but its not that simple love. This style of ward wont let us build in a doorway, would make the entire structure collapse. We have seen little of Faye, and there very well could be something in here that could knock it down, or bypass it somehow. Given how Bristle Backs can move through magic, I don't know if it would completely stop them. Besides that we have to think of those staying inside. They will all be new to magic, the knowledge will be there, if everything turns out the way we believe, but no experience or practice. It would be very easy to someone new at magic to walk through our ward without realizing it. They could become lost, or get chased away and eaten out there. The only reason we've faired so well, is that we're far stronger than the average witch or wizard."

I paused to breath before continuing. "Especially easy for kids, we'll have nearly a hundred of them living here. And animals, we don't want our cattle to wonder off do we?"

She nodded, looking more secure now. "I suppose it will have to be reasonably tall. With a gate that raises and lowers when someone needs in or out. I never thought about that honestly."

I gasped at that. "You? Not thinking of something? Hell must have frozen over."

She stuck her tongue out at me and grinned. "I let you have a few every once and a while." I laughed and squeezed her hand. We had so much to do still.

3.

The next few weeks went by quickly. We got up with the suns, and usually didn't stop until they were nearly hidden again. Even with magic it was time consuming and back breaking, but I was having a blast. Hermione was coming to appreciate physical labor more than I think she ever had before.

We started by selecting big thick trees and felling them. We tried to pick those that stood a bit apart, not wanting to knock over younger ones in the process. I forget the exact number, but it took hundreds to get enough for our wall. One advantage of setting up camp in a forest, there was plenty of materials to draw on.

The wall ended up being thirty feet tall, with eight feet of tree buried in the ground for support the inside of the wall was braced with thicker trees spaced twenty feet apart. Like our fort, the trees had groves cut in the side to help lock them together. That would have taken weeks alone without magic.

The trees themselves we left round, they stayed stronger that way. The tops of the trees had been sharpened into points; to discourage things from climbing over that way.

Hermione had integrated something rather ingenious as well. There were certain trees on Faye that produced an oily slick sap. The wall was coated in it, making it nearly impossible to climb at all.

She designed the gate too, but we went with something a bit different than a raising gate. We ended up using one that slid sideways into the wall. The trees on either side of the gate were thicker to accommodate it. It over lapped on both sides; by building it like that, we made it impossible to knock the gate over. It would have to be broken completely to get inside. A bit of metal pried from the soil was molded with magic into sliding rollers, we oiled those with the same sap we coated the walls with. It slid smoothly and quietly. When it was locked into place, I would have had to rip the entire thing apart to break that lock.

We reinforced everything with sticking charms. We avoided making things unbreakable. Sure, it sounds like a great idea, making it all unbreakable, then nothing breaks right? Not quite. What the common witch or wizard didn't know, was those charms had limits, high limits sure, but limits all the same. Once more magic or force was applied than the charm could take… the 'unbreakable' object would usually crumble to dust. We didn't want our wall crumbling to dust all at once. That would be… bad.

Hermione and I sat in the grass in front of our massive wall. We'd just put the final touches on it and had run tests over the whole surface; looking for weak spots. The two of us were finally satisfied that it was as strong as it was ever going to get.

Perhaps one day we'd replace it all with metal, that would make it much stronger, there just wasn't enough in the ground around us to try it. We'd still be looking for materials at the rate that would have taken.

Hermione was munching on a spark pod, her hair stood on end and waved slightly around her head. I don't think i'd ever get tired of watching her do that when she ate those things. "How many walls have you built like this one Harry? I know you put a few together back in the good old days. Didn't you help colonize America? Surely you had a hand in building a few then."

I smiled at her. Hermione and I had talked about my past lives many times over the years. She knew my story in general, and quite a few details, but she didn't know everything. It would take another century of talking for her to know it all; I intended for her to one day, it just took a bloody long time to slog through it all.

I nodded. "Sure did. I had found out He intended on heading there. Wanted a new nation to rule I suppose, so I followed like usual. The colonists and I managed to build many a fort over the years. This wall drew inspiration from that, along with a few hundred others over the years before that. Even with the Native Americans spread out over the whole continent, it was a wild, beautiful place. I spent several years amongst different tribes. Say what you want about wand magic, the medicine men in those days got along just fine without them. I always considered European magicals a bit funny for relying so heavily on a tool to channel their magic. They were experts at the art of animagus transformations. Met a few with multiple forms too."

"I'm going to make you write it all down one day you know. Your memoirs."

That got my laughing. "The world's longest, most boring book."

"Boring? Harry you spent literally thousands of years chasing and fighting an ancient evil. Flourish and Blot's wouldn't have been able to keep it in stock!"

I grinned. " it sounds good when you put it like that, but sometimes it took decades for us to find one another. For every interesting life Iv'e had, there's another where I spent twenty years making shoes for a living, or spent my mornings milking cows and my evenings putting hay up in a barn for hours."

"Well, skip over the boring parts then. I bet it would still be a rather large book, or series of books at least. You don't have to worry about fighting Him anymore. This colony will be up and running by itself one day. I don't know if you've noticed, but we aren't really aging anymore. You're going to need a hobby."

I hadn't thought of that. "Maybe, but I suspect we'll be quite busy for some time yet. I plan on exploring every inch of this world with you eventually. That alone will take a lifetime or two. But perhaps. What should I call it? An immortal Idiot's Guide to Globe Trotting?"

That got her laughing. "Nah, how about, Defeating Dark Lords for dummies?"

I grinned. "I like your's better love."

She leaned forward and kissed me. I returned it enthusiastically. From a nearby tree I heard Violet whistling a cat call at us. I found it hilarious when he did that. He'd listened to me whistle at Hermione enough that he could mimic the sound perfectly

She pulled back from me a little, a smile on her face and love shining in her eyes. "So what's next? I'm book smart but haven't the slightest clue on how to go about building a colony."

I grinned at her. "Well usually we'd have extra hands helping us. Building a colony like this is usually a group project. We've spoiled them by doing all the work up to now. I think we need to construct two buildings first. A bunk house for everyone to sleep. And another for meals and gatherings. I think of lot of people will be celebrating birthdays when we get them down here, you know, try and make up for two centuries of sleep"

She nodded at that. " keeping every body in one spot at the beginning will help everyone get to know each other better."

"Yes, and we can work on individual housing after we get a good routine established for us all. With more hands capable of magic we'll get every family into their own homes before too long. But, before we start on any more buildings, we ought to finish clearing this place out, its still pretty damn wild and thick with bush in here."

And so we got to it. The both of us kept at it like we had before, instead of burning or cutting up plants, we moved them. It would have been impractical to do it by hand, but of course magic made it all the easier.

We cleared out one 'corner' of our little colony site first, an area that had little in the way of useful plants. Once that was taken care of we combed through everything, looking for edible plants. Those we replanted in our cleared area. The trees were felled and stacked for use as building materials next, we got them all but for that single ring of singing trees. The little bristled lizards watched us warily as we worked. I supposed they were curious as to when it would be their turn. None of the other trees had long term residents other than insects. Violet was more than happy to help clean those up. The little guy would be waddling by sundown every day.

When we were finally done with this little step, our nook had been transformed. Most if not all the trees were gone; turned to planks for buildings. The fruit bearing bushes were arranged in neat rows, just far enough apart to give them room to grow. And all the tangle and undergrowth had been transplanted and moved away. Our spaceship stuck out like a metallic thumb in the wide open spot. A single knot of trees still stood, about a dozen in all, about fifty feet to the right of our home. The cave could be clearly seen from the back now.

Hermione reached for my hand and I gave it willingly. "Whats next?" She didn't sound tired, enthusiastic if anything. I smiled and kissed her then.

"Two things left to do before we go and start waking people up. We need to finish the two buildings we wanted, and to tunnel out that cave entrance more."

She nodded and stroked her chin in mock contemplation. "Lets do the cave first, I'd rather get the more dangerous task out of the way first."

"Sounds good to me love, no time like the present." We strode off, hands clasped, for the back of our little piece of paradise.

4.

Sheering off the rock, bit by bit, did prove to be the more dangerous. We'd been at it a few hours, had managed to get about half way down the passage, when a crumbling crack came from the cavern itself.

The two of us shared a look, as wary as always these days, and headed in to investigate. One of the tiny passageways, that before had been no bigger than my hand, had cracked and widened into another passageway.

"I guess all the vibrating knocked this lose." Hermione muttered the words, she talked to herself as much as she did to me.

I flicked a finger at the opening and a ball of heatless light shot forward into the gloom. The passageway was long and narrow, with a sharp upward angle. I looked at her and grinned, a tad maniacally. "You know you wanna find out where it goes."

She gave me a look, one that clearly said I had no clue what I was talking about, but she sighed and gave in without any sort of real fight. "I suppose, just a quick look and we're gonna stop this up again and forget it was here."

So the two of us headed inside to see all that we could see.

It didn't widen like I thought it might. No, it stayed narrow, more a gap between two huge slabs of rock than a proper cave. For the longest time we figured it was nothing, just a crack that would taper off soon enough.

Then we saw them, the paintings.

They started small; landscapes with two distant figures, before growing into a mural that stretched up out of sight in that narrow path. Two figures, riding in a glowing star, those same two going forth and spreading, now many figures, humanoid in shape but with no details, living and hunting in many places. Forests, lakes, desserts, and mountains, the almost humans spreading out over the entire planet it seemed. We didn't speak, barely breathed as we moved farther up the passageway, enraptured at the images. There were cities now, vehicles the flew, indistinct shapes with no real detail, but the intention was clear.

Then other beings were shown in the paintings, large and shadowed. The cities burned, and the last stretch was nothing but a wall of white and red.

The passage with the paintings ended abruptly after that, with a small hole that let in light at the back. I peered through the hole and reared back in surprise. The other side of it showed a forest of bulb trees, and a bear raptor had been walking through it. This passageway lead to the Stilted Lands. It didn't make sense, we hadn't walked even half an hour, and yet it was so. "Magic." I muttered under my breath so Hermione wouldn't hear.

She looked through the hole after me and jumped back almost. With a flourish of her hands, she closed off the small opening. "We need to enchant this side so nothing can break through."

I nodded at that and did so, burying that end with rock and dirt before layering enchantments over top. Hermione was back at looking at the cave paintings.

She hummed to herself before turning back to me. "What do you reckon it means Harry?" I could tell from her voice that she already had a fair idea. But it was nice when she let me have one.

"I'd say a recording of their creation story, an overview of their history, just after that war that threw them back into the stone age." I leaned forward and took a closer look. The figures were hairless, as best I could figure, and that made my nerves settle a bit. "Prolly lots of little nooks and caves like this scattered about. We'll have to bring Instar and Svenwhick to see."

She nodded smiling, "It's a bit… oddly familiar."

I smiled. "It is, and I can follow that thought, but lets not involve fate and prophecy if we don't need to love." She hugged me and we made our way back down to the cavern. Hermione placed an illusion and a ward over this entrance. We wanted to keep it quiet a bit longer, we'd share later.

My mind wouldn't stop thinking about the raptor bear I'd spied through that little hole at the end of the passageway. We'd had our encounter with them nearly a hundred and fifty miles from here, there territory, or numbers at least, were much higher than I wanted. There I go, thinking of threats and genocide again.

I suppose I always would think in such terms, the two hundred years of quiet travel had been good for me. Not having to fight for my life constantly allowed me to relax, to forget for a time what I'd been through in my long and shattered life. But now, I felt those old ways returning, settling back into my mind like some sort of violent cold blanket that covered everything.

It was something I was going to have to live with, something I would have to get a better grip on. I didn't want to be that man again, that coldness. I looked to Hermione as we covered the last touches of our widened cavern and smiled. With her by my side, anchoring and tempering the hardness in my soul, perhaps I could just manage it.

We finished just as the suns were setting in the sky, blanketing our home below the stilted lands in orange light. I took Hermione's hand and squeezed it, smiling.

"We've got a lot of the basics at this point." I whispered, "Home sweet home." She leaned against me and side tiredly.

"Its really is starting to look homey in here isn't it?"

"Indeed it is my dear." I chuckled as she yawned over the back of her hand. "But we have a lot more to do beautiful, come on, time for some shut eye I think."

She didn't protest as I lead her away, and back to our ship… our new home.

Okay folks, we've reached the end of part one of this story. Part two will be coming shortly. I don't tend to ask for reviews, but please, let me know how part one went, and again, i'd like to cry your pardon over how long it took to get from chapter 2 to chapter 3.

See you soon,

Harkon


	11. Something Rotten in the State of Denmark

Chapter 11: SomethingRotten in the State of Denmark

It was time, finally. We'd done our best to find a new home for humanity, and I think we'd done a fair job of it. Months of exploring, encounters with aliens, friendly and otherwise, finally finding a proper colony site, and then the clearing and preparing of that site had finally come to a close. I laughed, all that done, and the real challenge was just now beginning.

Now we had to make Faye our home, truly make it ours. Hermione and I had adjusted to living on this alien world over the course of the last six months, but soon, we'd be teaching nearly a thousand people how to do the same.

"Thank the gods we got everyone's magic flowing, otherwise we'd be in serious trouble." My words had been muttered but Hermione had heard me. She nodded along at my assessment.

"That in its self had been one hell of a trick love. I remember when we were trying to figure out how to do it, building the ship by ourselves had been an easier task."

That got me laughing. Hermione hadn't much liked working on the ship. Trying to figure out how to get the entire thing to run off magic had been a chore. Magic was a chaotic, illogical force that permeated the very fabric of reality. I remember one late night where Hermione had speculated that it had leaked into our universe from one that had to be very different from ours. It was one way to explain its reality warping properties, and made more sense than a lot of the theories I'd heard over the millennia.

"Ah but that big beautiful brain of your's finally figured out the trick didn't it? And just think, not a single human muggle left now."

"True, but if it hadn't been for your unique brand of magic we'd never have managed it anyway."

I shrugged. My primordial magic as I'd come to call it, had always been with me. This most recent life had just seemed to wake more of it up than usual. I called it a spark of creation, as I suppose all magic is really. And that spark had let us stimulate and wake up the dormant magic within the muggles amongst our would be colonists. Regardless of what any old school pureblood would have you believe, anything and everything alive contained a bit of magic, most of it was just sleeping.

Humans had tales of it didn't they? Seemingly normal humans with the ability to move things with their minds, grandmas lifting cars to save trapped grandchildren. Science would explain it away as fakery, or adrenaline, but the truth was magic; the simplest truth there was.

When the colonists awoke they'd have a basic understanding of how it worked, how to channel and use it. We'd done our best to instill a Hogwarts education into their minds, but of course it would be different as well, one defining factor had made that decision for us. Wands, or a lack there of.

Hogwarts, like most traditional schools of the day, taught students to channel magic through a foci, a wand being the most popular choice. The problem being we didn't have a thousand wands for them to use. So we'd tweaked the programming so to speak. Wands weren't needed to cast magic, in all honesty they could be restricting in ways that using it naturally wasn't. I suppose I could open a wand shop, Faye had entire forests that would make good wands, and there wasn't a shortage of cores to choose from either, but this new beginning to humanity would be difficult, and I didn't want them relying on a crutch to have to deal with it.

So, when we designed the 'lessons' potion, man I had to stop letting Hermione name things, the first thing we included were exercises to help with the control of wandless magic. These lessons, amongst others, had slowly been dripped into the brains of our colonists while they slept. Trying to cram a bunch of info into a human brain all at once was deadly. A few could have survived the process but it usually left them catatonic or psychotic, neither of those were exactly desired. So, slowly over the course of two centuries, we'd fed them the potions through an IV as they slept. There minds should be nice and saturated by now, ready to put the new knowledge to good use.

"Alright, I'm afraid our extended honeymoon is over love. Time to go wake the kiddies up from their naps."

She sighed. "Id hoped to explore more, see more for ourselves before we had to share, but I suppose you're right. There's nothing for us to do without them. And after putting all this work in, we ought to have some people here to appreciate it."

I laughed. Our little nook in the cliff wall had changed since we discovered it months back. A forested impression in the plateau was now cleared and cleaned. Tall thick walls ran from one end to the other, a hundred yards or so in all. They were tall and spiked, and a ward ran smack dab through the center; from one side to the other.

The snarled brush and plants had been removed, crops of a strange sort had been planted in one corner. The fruit growing there was alien, and delicious.

Two long houses sat near the center. One worked as temporary housing until we could get individual homes built. It was a bit cramped inside. We'd used expansion charms to make it bigger on the inside and it was divided into little rooms to provide a sense of privacy. But there was only so much that could be done with expansion charms, like most things magical, using too many close together tended to make things… odd. We didn't want any room to be squeezed out of reality, such things had happened before, and we didn't want any room melting and blurring together; which could also happen. So those charms had been limited.

The other long house was made for eating, washing, and gathering. We'd find a use for it once everyone had their own homes, but it would do just fine for now.

Between the two buildings was the remnant of a fire with fresh logs arranged inside. Both of us liked the charyepchee's communal dinners and we wanted to give it a try here too. We hoped it would encourage a sense of community, especially considering that a lot of these people had only ever met each other briefly.

We hadn't packed up our ship yet, and in fact had no intention of doing so. Once we had everyone on the ground, we'd be parking it for good. I took Hermione's hand and we headed inside.

We'd done our best to explain to Violet what was about to happen. He'd flown inside before, but only briefly. This trip would be a lot longer than the previous one's and probably bumpier as well. The little guy seemed nervous, but not especially so.

Hermione had brought a large tank of dirt with us, a rather genius idea. If he got too nervous, Violet could bury himself in the dirt and sleep.

We took our seats with practiced ease and began firing up the engine's. This trip required full power so the process took a tad longer than usual. The ship hummed to life, our custom made power sources glowed within the consoles, reaching their full brightness for the first time in six months.

"Ready for this love?" I was grinning, I couldn't help myself.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be. You drive this time Harry, space makes me nervous."

I laughed and began the final launch sequence. "Not a problem at all." With the flip of the few last switches we rose into the air with a thrumming buzz. I punched in the coordinates for the mother ship and we were off with a jerk. I grinned as my eyes watered at the sudden speed, the shield had dampeners for such things but you really had to get some speed going to escape the initial gravity of a planet. Luckily for Hermione we didn't have to go full speed; the colony ship was in low orbit after all.

The both of us watched as we rocketed through the sky, heading nearly straight up. We were on a slightly angled course, but it didn't feel like it as we quickly picked up speed, going hundreds a miles per hour. There was a thump as we broke the sound barrier.

The ride felt longer than it was, having your eyes push backward into your skull had that effect. I heard Hermione groan from next to me and she reached over to squeeze my arm. She knew better than to try to grab my hand while it was so busy.

We watched as the blue sky, a bit off from Earth's and filled with wisps of different colors, raced passed us and began to grow darker. We'd nearly made it into the upper atmosphere when we hit it.

It wasn't like we slammed into something, or as if the ship actually slowed down any, but we hit it none the less. When we had first landed on Faye, we'd passed through a strange band of energy. The two of us had concluded that it had to be part of the planet's magic, some sort of natural ward that probably protected it from from harmful things like meteors and asteroids. It had felt strange then and did so now. It flowed around us, reaching out to touch us and slide across our bodies.

The sensation completely ignored clothes and traced a cold tingly finger across our entire bodies. The sensation was both uncomfortable and slightly arousing for some reason. Man Freud would've had a field day with me. The sensation lasted only a few moments before we slid all the way through it.

I hadn't a clue what criteria it used to determine threats, but whatever they were we passed. And just like that, after a trip of less than five minutes, we were free and floating in true space. The muggles with their crazy rockets could have made the trip a bit faster, but they also had a habit of passing out from the g forces. Our method was a tad slower, but a great deal more comfortable.

The colony ship was a small dot off in the distance, I hadn't set an exact course, just a ball park, it gave Hermione time to start the docking procedures, and me some time to play a bit. I was flying a space ship after all, that alone demanded that I did at least a few loopty loops.

I turned the ship in a lazy spiral pattern as we corkscrewed through space. The lack of gravity made our stomachs flip around inside and I heard Hermione moan softly. "I'm so glad I didn't eat before we left, why I decided to let you fly I'll never know."

I chuckled and leveled the ship back out a bit. Sorry love, I got a bit carried away there."

She shrugged. "Its okay Harry, you know how much I hate flying. Broomstick or rocket ship, its about all the same to me."

I nodded and straightened everything out and set it back in course. That tiny speck of a ship was much closer now; we could both make out many of the details on the sides. An intricate rune scheme covered the entire outside. It worked like a reflective shield; pinging and bouncing any debris away from the ship's outer hull. Plus it looked cool when the shield flared to life and sent out rippling waves of light with each collision.

Hermione contacted the ship's system and took over. She could initiate the docking procedures from our drop ship. It was something we'd both agreed on, neither wanted to be stuck in the ship while the other went and explored.

"The computer is reading green for docking."

"Good, lets get this little birdie back in the nest." I slowed us down significantly as we came in close to the ship, using tiny thrusters scattered around the outside to guide us to the rear docking hatch. The ship had two main docks. One was what we called the cradle; that's where we launched the ship from originally and its only purpose was to hold our little boat.

This second docking bay was designed to hook up our trailers to. It was a efficient and intelligent system, my wife came up with it of course. Once one trailer was attached and we left, another one would automatically lower to take its place. Im sure i'd have figured something out, but her ideas tended to be a lot more… streamlined than mine.

Buzzers and flashing lights lit up the screen, informing us that we were about to connect. I slowed the ship down even further, using the smallest amount of thrust as possible. With a final dull thud, we were attached.

there was the hiss of air as the atmosphere inside our ship changed slightly to match that of the colony carrier. My ears popped slightly and I worked my jaw to remove the sudden pressure. Hermione sighed and stretched, the harrowing trip, at least in her mind, was over for now. The two of us stood and moved to the back of the drop ship, intent on unlocking the door and stepping back into our old home, one we'd lived in for two centuries.

Violet reached out and took my metal hand. For some reason he always preferred that one, I thought It might have something to do with it being made from something that came out of the earth, it reminded him of where he was safest.

The little guy seemed awfully nervous. I couldn't blame him really, he was the first of his kind to ever be in outer space after all. Essentially he was visiting an alien space craft, friendly aliens, but alien none the less.

Hermione entered the code by the door to unlock it and gave it a tiny spark of her own magic. It was a fail safe security measure. Even if one knew the code, it required a spark of one of our magics to open completely. Perhaps we'd grown paranoid in our old age, but it never hurt to be careful.

The door opened with a near silent hiss, and Immediately, we knew something terrible had happened.

2.

The smell was awful. That was the first thing that hit us. The putrid smell of rotten, feted meat; of fresh corpses, baking in the sun. I gagged and Hermione covered her mouth with a hand, trying to keep her breakfast down. With the flick of my wrist I covered us in bubble head charms. Usually I had a strong stomach, not much bothered me, but we were in an enclosed space, there was no where to banish the bad air to.

"Oh god, what have we done? Something must have went wrong, they've woken up early and starved to death!" She looked sick and started hyperventilating. "What have we done Harry?"

She was shaking and I grabbed her by the shoulders. I didn't shake her, not yet, but I feared I might have to. "We don't know anything yet love. And we need to find out what's going on, lets go and check on them." She took a deep breath, seemed to recover her wits a bit and nodded. I held her hand tightly as we walked into our ship, into a tomb.

It was cold and dark inside. Many of the lights had been broken and the corridors were gloomy. Something had indeed went wrong, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it could be. The colonists had been sleeping for two centuries now, and couldn't just wake up. They needed a special potion for that, something that had to be administered slowly over the course of several hours before they would wake up.

But something had certainly happened. The ship was cold, almost icy. Our breath bloomed in front of us in a little clouds of steam. I cast a warming charm at Hermione before applying one to myself. We'd known our ship like the backs of our hands, but now it felt like a stranger to us. Passageways had been blocked off, refuse had been piled high in many places forcing us to detour around. There were spots where the walls had been ripped open, creating make shift doorways from one room to the next. I didn't miss the dark, brown stains on he edges of those ragged doorways, nor the smears of it across the corridor floors, as If something had been dragged along.

The bubble head charms worked, but didn't block everything. underneath the rot, there was the smell of mold, but not a familiar one. It was mustier, heavier than any I'd ever encountered before. We'd been walking for some time now, and were drawing closer to the sleeping chambers, where our would be colonists had been snoozing away for centuries. I noticed almost immediately that the floor had grown sticky.

Those dark brown stains were much fresher now, and a lot more red showed through, but that wasn't all. Something was growing along the corridor. It was a molted flesh color and seemed to crawl, ever so slowly across the floor and walls. I reached out with my metal hand and poked at it. It gave no outward reaction at the touch, but my finger came back sticky.

"Love, I don't know what happened, but its nothing we've done. Something has happened while we were gone." She nodded, and took a step inside the room. It should have been locked, but wasn't. The smell wasn't as bad here, but the extra blood more than made up the difference. The fungal growth was everywhere now and seemed to pulse with the hum of the ship. The room itself was huge, far bigger on the inside than out. There were a hundred stacks of beds, ten high, with a bed floating above each other spaced five feet apart. The grounded beds had another five feet dividing each stack.

At just glance I felt my stomach drop and roll in fear, anger and confusion. Nearly a quarter of the beds were empty. The other colonists slept on peacefully, caught in an ageless, magical sleep. A dome covered their heads that produced a slight glow; the machines that fed them their lessons on magic. The beds closest to the door were empty and covered in dried blood stains. Some of them looked torn to shreds, as if something massive had pulled them apart bare handed. The farther into the room we walked, the fresher the destruction became. Hermione's hand was squeezing mine hard enough to nearly cut off the blood flow. The beds seemed to be picked at random, which ever ones happened to be closest to the last. I even noticed several colonists at the top seemed to have been spared, as if it wasn't worth the trouble of getting them. Why would it be? With all this fresh meat, ripe for the choosing.

"We need to get to the bridge. The scrying mirrors should have caught what did this. I don't know what the hell has happened. We didn't bring anything dangerous with us, nothing that causes this kind of carnage. Even those couple of dragon eggs we smuggled from earth wouldn't have done it."

She nodded weakly. "We're too far up too. I don't see how anything from Faye could be responsible. Even if some creature down there could survive the vacuum of space, they'd had to have punched a hole in the ship, which would have depleted the atmosphere aboard."

"Lets go see all that we can see. The sooner we find out what happened the better." We walked out of the room, sealing and locking it behind us. Violet was whimpering from his spot on my shoulder. I reached up with my free hand and stroked his back, trying to reassure him. "We need to get him back to the landing ship. I don't know what the hell has happened, but there's no soil up here for him to draw on."

Violet jumped into Hermione's arms, burrowing himself in as deep as he could go. "I'll drop him off while you head for the-"

"No, we'll both drop him off. I'm not leaving you alone up here with Merlin know's what the hell is going on. I've half a mind to lock you both in and set the ship to autopiolot back to the ground. I won't, not yet anyway, but I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"Harry, I'm more than capable of protecting-"

I cut her off again, not wanting to be rude, but having to get my point across. "I know you can protect yourself Hermione, but you also have to remember our arsenal is rather limited up here. One magical attack just a hair to powerful and we risk rupturing a hole in the ship. I know its shielded from the outside, but it isn't from the inside. A stupid oversight on my part at the time, but hindsight is twenty twenty after all." That made her pause to think about it.

"Okay, you're right. We'll stay together, but you're not sending me off to deal with this alone!"

"I won't," not now at least, "now lets get going, I want to find out what the hell is going on here." We wasted no time in returning to the life boat. It looked blessedly untampered with. I put Violet inside and knelt down in front of him. I cast the translation spell, for his own benefit. It didn't help me to understand him much, our minds worked to differently, but it helped him.

"Stay inside buddy. We don't know what's happened, but we want you to stay safe. Why don't you go sleep in the soil for a while? We'll come straight back as soon as we get it all sorted out." He hooted softly at me, still looking frightened, before giving Hermione and I a gentle hug and climbing on top of the large crate filled with dirt. A soft wisp of magic later and he was buried, deep in the center of it. I sighed and stood.

I looked at my wife, my face growing tense. "Lets get to the bridge." We walked back into the main ship and shut the door behind us. I shut it and locked it, and then placed a ward overtop just for good measure. The lights overhead dimmed and flickered again. One of them went out completely down the hall; the same hall we had to head down to reach the bridge.

The ship creaked and groaned as we made our way through it. That was something else new. While it had been built over the course of a decade, nearly two hundred years ago, it was layered with as many charms and enchantments as we could think of. It should have been silent, a soft hum of magic and machinery the only background noise that could have been audible, but that wasn't the case.

"Something has been messing with the ship's internal operations. I know we saw holes... chewed through it in places, but this runs deeper than that. Trying to figure out how to wake to colonists?"

"I don't know Harry, but they've partially succeeded. Our lights shouldn't flicker and expire like they have. We had systems in place to stop the growth of bacteria and fungus, those have stopped working entirely." She frowned in disgust at the fleshy tendrils that snaked across the floor and ceiling. "At least the gravity still works though."

I nodded, grateful for small favors. I tensed as a new sound entered my ears. a Distant scuttling, like nails being rapidly tapped on metal reached me. It was faint, but there. It happened several more times before disappearing completely. We shared a look and I could see the fear buzzing behind Hermione's eyes. What if we lost control of our new power on board? I feared we'd rip the ship to pieces killing whatever had caused this. Just have to keep a lid on it, no matter how much it wanted to come out to play.

Over the last couple of months Hermione and I had both practiced with the form, but it wasn't easy. It was difficult to bring out unless something was threatening our lives, but we had managed to. Even using the faintest of power was far stronger than normal spell casting. We were making progress on controlling it, in truth Hermione was better at it than I was, but we weren't anywhere close to what I'd call mastering the form.

The lights overhead gave an ominous flicker before blinking out completely. "Fuck." Hermione gripped my hand, I felt her panic rising and did my best to calm her. " See into the darkness love, you know we can. We'll be able to see better that way than we could have with the flickering light anyway."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I don't know why this is freaking me out so badly, I mean, I do, but It shouldn't. It just feels... familiar somehow."

I nodded. "I know, and don't worry, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little freaked out too." It reminded me of our time in His city, that deep prison we'd had to escape, filled to the brim with rot and monsters. It couldn't be Him though, we was long gone. I felt confident that if He had somehow managed to escape from the faye, that they would have told me. And what ever had happened here... I had my suspicions, partial ones anyway.

With a spark of magic the world lit up around us again, bathed in a sparking blue light. My stomach dropped, and Hermione screamed.

3.

It had multiple heads, some bobbed above on stalks of flesh like elongated molted necks, several dangled underneath, held with tenuous cords of sinew. the body was a bulbous mass, bodies stuck together with fungal growth, and the limbs... the limbs were arms and legs of humans, some of them ended in bloated hands and feet, others only in jutted stumps of bone. The multiple heads moaned, a few screamed in pain, were they conscious? Kept alive some how even though they'e true shapes and forms had been distorted and destroyed beyond recognition? Disgust welled up in me, two of the heads were familiar. Some of the heads spoke, kill us they screamed, another only asked why, over and over and over. The shapeless body had a ghastly slit in the front filled with broken jagged bones for teeth, it hissed and groaned, lengths of rotting intestine extended, writhing like snakes or the tongues of a demon.

"Kill me!"

"End me!"

"Why? Why? Why?! Why?! Why?! Why?!"

"Mercy please!"

It scuttled forward, some legs created a wet smacking sound, others scraped and clattered. It was fast, but awkward, with limbs of all different shapes and lengths. The intestine tentacles leapt out, snatching at us. It leapt, flailing through the air like a living nightmare given horrific form. I Heard Hermione vomit to my right, from the sight and the smell of it. Magic leapt from my fingers and tears stung my eyes from the odor. A severing charm, several of them. The first thing I did was slice at the heads. If they truly continued to remain conscious on some level, if it wasn't just a trick using the voices of the dead, I wanted to end their pain. I didn't sever the flesh stalks, didn't want to risk them having to suffer such a horrific existence even a moment longer, I attacked their brains. I used the severing charms to bisect their heads, just above what remained of their eyes. The grey meat that held their consciousness was destroyed instantly.

The voices had stopped and I felt a minute drop of relief mixed with horror, they had been conscious, but at least they were no longer. Hermione had pressed herself against the far wall, trying to get away. Her senses had fled her, and I didn't blame her. If I hadn't lived such a long life, hadn't fought things like this, and worse, before, I would have been lost to madness already. The dreadful thing hadn't slowed with the loss of the heads, but it did fumble now as if blind. It had been so quick, had appeared instantly with the loss of light, and hadn't let the mouths speak until we saw it.

Yet it had no magic.

I hit it with a bludgeoning curse, right at the lumpy mass that made up its body, and it ruptured, spewing rotten guts and viscera across the corridor. A quick shield kept the muck off of Hermione and myself. I waited to see what would happen, a beast made of dead things may be able to pull itself back together, even when separated. Several moments passed and nothing happened. I burned the remains to ash just to be certain, and rushed to Hermione. She had stood up, hands on her knees and breathing raggedly. She jumped slightly at seeing me approach before latching on for dear life.

"I'm so sorry, I froze, didn't know what to do, what the hell could I have done?" I held her tightly and shushed her softly. I wrapped us in a shield. If there had been one, there would be more, and I didn't want to be attacked by another while I held her.

"Don't be sorry, you did nothing wrong love, if I wasn't as old as I am... I doubt I'd have faired any better."

She looked at me then, tears stood in the corners of her eyes. A look of horror on her face. "You've seen something like this before, haven't you?"

I hesitated briefly, but only briefly, before I nodded. "Not the same... but similar enough. I won't blame you if you didn't notice, but the beast had no magic. This horrific form of resurrection is wholly biological in nature love. They're vicious, and terrifying, but we can shred them."

She swallowed thickly at that and gave a nod. "We still need to get to the bridge, have to find out what's going on, and have to figure out how this happened. There was no hint of this when we left."

I nodded, I don't know how it happened, but this thing, this entity had somehow gotten on board, and had created these monsters with the corpses of the dead. "LIsten, I want you to get back to the drop ship, I want you to uncouple and get away from here. I'll contact you when this is-"

"NO! I'm not leaving you to deal with this on your own, I was scared and I froze, I admit it, nothing has stopped me in my tracks like that in a very long time, but it was just the shock. I'm over it now. I'm not leaving you alone to deal with this Harry, you may very well need me."

I looked into her face, raw with emotion, but also holding an old steel I hadn't seen her use in a very long time, and nodded. She was back fully now, and that old coldness, the one that was always so close to the surface of my mind, had returned to her as well. A determination she hadn't had to use since our time on Earth.

"Alright then. Lets get to the bridge. We have to find this source, and kill it. Then we'll have to cleanse the ship. I won't bring one of those things to Faye by accident, and risk this happening on a larger scale." She nodded at my words and stepped back from me. Hermione's posture changed then. Gone was the scientist, the curious woman I'd love and married, and in her place stood a warrior, one that had fought the undead and demons before. My how such a state looked impressive on her form. Not even when we fought the bear raptors had this version of her come out. It took a sense of desperation and dread, I suspected, to bring this part of her personality to the surface; and gods help whatever managed to bring it forth.

a/n

Well dear readers... things have certainly taken a turn for the gruesome haven't they? I hope everyone enjoyed this. Let me know what you thought, til next time.


	12. Horror of the Void

The bridge was blessedly devoid of anything living, natural or otherwise. We wasted no time at all. Hermione strode across the room and started clacking away at the consoles. I set a perimeter to make sure nothing attempted to sneak up on us. My eyes cast around the room, taking in the destruction and the changes.

Panels had had torn in them, some had been removed entirely. Much like Our small ship, these ran on a modified ward stone of sorts. The highly enchanted and rune covered cubes of metal powered most of the ship. There were four of them in total, and three were missing completely. Whatever had done this, whatever had created that frankenstien like beast we'd encountered in the hallway was far from stupid. The cubes that had been removed powered the security systems and the ship's magically powered engines. Hermione and I had briefly discussed having the ship run off of solar energy, but decided that given magic's natural tendency to take very little energy to power large effects, That it would be the best option. I heard her growl in frustration. There was nearly two hundred years worth of footage about the ship, and she needed to narrow it down to what happened.

I walked over the help her, setting wards on the doorways and ceiling vents before doing so. I had no desire to turn about and find another one of those cobbled together beast's behind us. "What's wrong love? How can I help?"

She waved at the bank of computers in annoyance. "I know the ship was clean when we left it. That means whatever happened, happened within the last six months. I don't think the thing we saw was responsible for this, just a by product of what was happening." I nodded in agreement. "But most of the scrying mirrors have been broken. I had hoped to use them to narrow our search a bit, but now we'll have to comb through way too much data to get what we needed."

I looked at the cracked screen in front of her. It was a three dimensional map of the ship. Areas had different colored lights attached to them to show us what part of the system was working or not. Green meant all good, yellow meant problems, but that the area still had functioning power and equipment. Red meant it had power, but none of the magical tech in the area was working properly. And black meant nothing at all was working. There wasn't a speck of green to see, with only little bits of yellow scattered about. Most of the ship was in red. A couple bits of the red had black within. I narrowed my eyes, studying the map for a moment.

Black was frequent, but scattered, as if the complete shut down of an area hadn't been really intentional. Or perhaps what ever was responsible for this didn't understand the difference. It likely didn't. I looked closer, eyes narrowed. Along one side of the ship, the rooms closest to the outside, there was a swath of black. Numerous rooms in black that surrounded one central area. These black parts were surrounded by red. I poked at the area. "There, start your search there."

She didn't comment, only grateful to have a way to proceed. I didn't know if this thing was smart enough to intentionally knock out the scrying system, but if I had to guess I'd say it did. and it would make sure as much of it was gone as possible. Hermione's fingers were a blur and I looked around, wary of any attackers. I saw nothing, and my ward was holding perfectly, but I suspected we were being watched. I didn't share this idea with Hermione, she was concentrating and I didn't want to break it.

Within the span of a few, very long, seconds, Hermione had the footage focused in on the room. She'd started it on just one day after we left and began fast forwarding through it. THe tape zipped by. We weren't looking for something conspicuous, both of us believed that whatever had done this, it wouldn't be subtle. And we were right.

Two weeks or so after we left, something had slammed into the ship. It hadn't been an asteroid or a comet. No, this thing was small. We watched in mounting concern as a fleshy looking spike lodged itself into the hull of the ship. The thing swelled, making sure to preserve the atmosphere it had so rudely destablized. Once the hull had been sufficiently plugged, the front of the spike shivered and opened like a grotesque flower. The things that crawled out of that opening sent a chill down my spine. More walking death monsters, but these were small, and seemed to come from alien life far different from what I had ever encountered. We watched a bit longer before cutting it off. The hideous flower growing from the wall had gotten bigger, and we watched as the small grotesque beasts began dragging in corpses. That's when we'd decided to cut the screen off.

Hermione sat back and sighed, scrubbing at her face, expression forlorn. I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. She took it in her own, and ran a thumb across the back. She stood suddenly, body tensing and kissed me, quick and hard.

"Lets go kill this fucking thing."

I smiled wanly at her and nodded. We headed for the door. I left the ward in place as we passed through it. No need to let the disgusting creatures back inside this room. we exited, enchanted eyes bathing the world in blue light.

2.

We encountered more corpse spiders the deeper we went into the ship. They all moaned at us as if in pain and agony, and I knew, that if anything of the host was actually still alive, that they would be. They were terrifying to look at, and much faster than they looked like they could be. There was no real magic inside them, the barest hint of a spark, less than what a muggle had, but still there all the same. I believed that whatever mechanism gave these things life was more mundane in nature.

They could be quiet too. We had been cautious, moving around corners quickly and quietly. Any of the corpses we found we killed as fast as we could. We were just coming around another corner, one that would lead us deeper into the ship, when we were ambushed.

It was that unique mundaneness about them that got us. With a ship created and filled with magic, those tiny sparks that kept them running blended into the background. There had been two before us, shrieking and moaning and crawling. Hermione raised a hand with me as we sent slashes of magic to slice them up, when one landed on my back. Several sets of broken teeth clamped down hard on my neck and shoulders. I roared in surprise and pain before I flung myself against the nearest wall in an attempt to crush the bastard thing. I felt it crumple under me but the teeth held on. Something wasn't right. I felt myself slowing, some sort of poison perhaps?

I threw out a pulse of magic that finally managed to dislodge the broken creature and stumbled. My vision blurred and my knees buckled. I looked to Hermione, She was grappling with one herself, those rotting heads on coils of feted meat snapped at her hungrily, all while moaning about the pain and screaming. I reached deep inside and flared primordial magic through my veins. The poison coursing through my system dimmed but didn't vanish entirely. A swirling spike of viridian magic leapt from my hand and skewered the thing Hermione had been struggling to keep at arms each. It was impaled into the ship's wall, where it hung momentarily before falling as the magic faded. She staggered, bleeding from multiple scrapes across her arms. She whirled, eyes glowing the color of honey and fired a blade toward me.

It sailed just over my head, close enough to ruffle my hair, and cut down the eldritch mass that had leapt at me, sparing me from even more bites. Power crackled across her skin and I saw her flash that bright honey color for just a moment before she reeled it in with gritted teeth. That was good, unleashing that strange power here aboard the ship would have probably killed us all.

We had made strives to control it, and had made limited progress. it was easy to bring forth, but harder to quiet. And sometimes, like now, it was difficult to keep at bay. That power wanted to be used. I clenched both hands into fists, green lightning danced across my skin as my own hidden power, wilder and deeper than primordial magic ached to be released. That was something else we'd discovered; if one of us 'went over' as we'd begun to call it, it was difficult for the other not to.

I staggered to my feet, letting that Wild power dissipate and my Primordial magic to fill me instead. That old friend would be more than sufficient for the task at hand. Two more shrieking skittering masses of hatred and pain leapt at us but we vaporized them out of the air with a thought. They were hard to detect with magic, but they had little defense against it either.

I shook my arms and shuddered, before I flooded primordial magic in my veins, opening up the gates and letting it burn away the rest of the poison coursing through me. I could almost hear it scream in frustration as my blood boiled it away.

I looked to my wife and smiled. "Thank you Hermione, did any bite you? It seems to be toxic."

She shook her head, eyes still glowing the color of honey. "No love, I don't think so, are you alright?" Our magics swirled and mingled as she came forward to wrap me in a hug, I returned it with gratefully.

"I think so, its nasty stuff, and is very fast acting, but I've burned it out of my system. Try to stay away from those teeth." The hallway was deserted now and she turned me around. Neither of us let this familiar magic fade, better to have it at the ready, and it was easily controlled, unlike that Wildness that resided deeper. She winced at the bites and healed them with a wave of her hand, the relief was instant, robbing me of the burning pain that had throbbed moments before.

I had a theory about what I'd taken to calling Wild magic. Our primordial power was ancient in nature, a spark of creation that birthed the universe, just a drop that was pulled to the surface and then built to our will. We could channel it like a scalpel or a hammer, but it was ours to control. Wild magic felt similar, but... deeper. Primordial magic scraped the surface of that ancient force, Wild scooped it out. It was why we had trouble being logical, found it difficult to give up a fight and rear it in. It was not a power mortals could normally reach for. I believed it to be ultimately stronger than primordial, but not as controllable, perhaps it never would be. It was more like a sledge hammer, there was no spells, only power and force. That lack of control made it weaker in several key aspects. It didn't do to dwell on it now though, we had more pressing matters, and years to discover it true potential.

I repaired my shirt with a flick of my finger and held my strength in check, eyes glowing green. The sooner we got this task over with, the better. We would cleanse this ship of its taint, and get the colonists to the surface; and hope that they would forgive us.

3.

We moved through the ship as quickly as we could. The closer we came to that fleshy flower, the nastier our surroundings grew. Blood became fresher, and soon painted the walls, floor, and ceiling. The fungal growth we'd come across was everywhere. It formed great meshes and interwove with the blood stains. In some spots it dripped from the ceiling, or hing like disgusting cob webs.

And then there were the corpses.

A good three fourths of the colonists still slept, unaware of the trouble that had befallen then at our departure. Some had obviously been used in the creation of those eldritch monsters that lurked through the halls. But here we found the majority. Bodies had been ripped apart, and placed in rough piles depending on what they used to be. A stack of limbs, fresher pieces haphazardly thrown on top of older rotting ones. A pile of heads, some looking days old, others runny and putrid that leaked brains and showed bone. At the far end I recognized a bloody lump of what could only be entrails. The smell of blood, rot, and shit mixed and lingered, enough to make us gag through a bubble head charm.

"What the ever loving fuck is this thing?" The question came to my lips unheeded. I hadn't even realized I spoke aloud until Hermione answered.

"Maybe this is the great filter muggle scientists used to speculate about… imagine this happening on a planet." I shuddered at the thought. Could it be true? Could things like this just drift through space until it sensed a world with a big enough population to crash land and begin converting them to... this?

I tried to imagine what would have happened if something like this had ever landed on Earth. I could see it in my mind's eye, clear as day. The flesh flower crashing into some back alley somewhere, slowly growing and collecting corpses. Perhaps Earth could have survived it in its prime, destroyed it before It got out of control. Then I remembered human nature... and realized we wouldn^′ t have killed it, not immediately. We would have tried weaponizing first.

I shook the thoughts from my mind. "We're close now, lets get this over with." The two of us raised hands and burned the... pieces to ash. It was quick work, we let the fire burn hot til the flames were white. The burning helped clean the air as well, burning away at the stench.

The strange flesh colored pod was only two rooms away now. I hoped it would be disappointment at the loss of its precious collection. But somehow I doubted it. After all, there was always more dead than the living.

I stood at the door of the next room and pressed my ear to it. I was surprised to find it closed. Most everything in the ship had been opened completely, but this door was shut. I couldn't hear a thing from the next room, but that meant little. I tried stretching out my senses but I couldn't detect anything. The ambient magic of the ship, even in this dead zone was strong enough to override any kind of spark used to keep the corpse spiders alive.

I pushed the door open, magic ready at my finger tips. The next room was just as dark as the others, but that did little to hinder us from seeing. The room was filled with clusters of meaty sacks. Some hung from the ceiling, others lay scattered about they floor. They were wet, slimy in appearance, and a dull webbed red in color, like old blood that had been mixed with snot. Thick ropes and tendrils connected them together. I realized with another gag that those cords were intestines. Something thick and viscus was being pumped through them and into the sacks. I could have called them eggs, but they didn't hatch anything useful.

"Is this how it makes corpse spiders?" Hermione's voice held steal, not a single tremor could be detected.

"The thought had crossed my mind too love, its either that or its reproducing, preparing to send more of itself out to feast on more worlds." We burned this room too. Now just one more door to open and all will be well. We strode forward, I let Hermione open the door this time, and I stood at the ready, fingers danced with lightning as I tensed, readied for anything.

She opened the door and I strode in with Hermione right behind me. They were on us at once. I didn't have time to see much of anything before I was mobbed by corpse spiders. I attacked, with bolts of magic in the form of spikes and blades and whips. The beasts snapped and popped, heads flew and bodies crumpled beneath me. Hermione was at my side and both of us tore into the room. The room was unrecognizable, just a smear of blood and guts and fungus. The floor was wet and slippery, and the moaning, gods the moaning. There seemed to be dozens of stitched together beasts, all of the shrieking and moaning, all of them crying out from the pain that had become their existence.

I took a few steps deeper into the room and was knocked off my feet by something bigger than a corpse spider. I landed and skidded in the muck. the impact popped my bubble head charm and my eyes immediately watered, I gagged and vomited the entire contents of my stomach and the sudden and brutal disgust that surrounded me. It felt like my stomach had turned completely inside out and was attempting to escape my throat, so it could crawl away from this screaming.

I looked to what had knocked me over and I reapplied the charm. It was big, bigger than the spiders. It had an elongated body that curved upward, like a centaur with severe elephantiasis. four limbs supported it holding the body off the ground, another four protruded from the upper body, I couldn't tell if the limbs had been arms or legs, they were too twisted for that, and ended in bloody spikes of bone. Four separate heads had been fused together, as if melted, there was no neck, just that dribbling blob of a head fuzed to a round approximation of shoulder. It moaned and snarled at me and leapt.

It paid no attention to the spike of magic I sent through it and collided with me. I fell again in the grossness and scowled, these clothes would have to be burned. For something made of dead body parts it was immensely strong and managed to drive a single spike of bone into my side. I grit my teeth against the pain and blasted it. I fell backward, and the arm that had jabbed me was torn free from its body. The bone fragment was still inside, I could feel the pain and pressure I pulled it out, nearly eight inches of bloody bone came out. I put one hand over the wound and ripped with my other, pulling the rest of the limbs free before crushing it to a pulp with magic.

Hermione had killed almost all the corpse spiders and I helped her mop up the stragglers. The screams of pain were finally over now. I hoped dearly that they hadn't had life left in them, that the screaming was just something passed through dead lips and deader brains, channeled only to frighten. I turned away from the last of them and we made our way quickly to the gargantium flesh pod that now rested where a little flower looking thing had been months ago.

"Do you think it can hear us? Know what we do?"

I shrugged, I had no idea. If it could, I hoped it was scared shitless, because I was about to torch the thing. I raised my hand the do just that when it shivered. I paused, not sure why. Perhaps a sense of morbid curiosity? Did I just want to see what It would do? I didn't know; but for whatever reason I paused and watched as my side throbbed and burned. The pod opened slightly and four flesh stalks slithered out, each of them ended in a rotted and smelly head.

The heads swiveled to look at us and smiled. All four of them opened their mouths... and spoke.

"Ah... Harry, Hermione... masters of the old flame... returned at last." I blinked and had to admit to myself that seeing and hearing it speak was unnerving. The heads were unrecognizzable, to much had rotted away or been deformed, but the voices held the slightest edge of familiarity.

"We had wondered, if you would return... we had hoped, and dreaded that you would return... fore we must thank you, even as we hate you..." I didn't say anything, couldn't really. I just watched, the burn in my side grew quieter as I focused my attention on this abomination of 'life.'

"We have circled this world for many eons. Waiting, watching, growing hungry and weak... we could not land, could not make it our own... the old flame prevented that..." The old flame? Did it mean magic? "But when you came... and then you left... we felt it, a chance to grow, a change to birth our children... so thank you... masters of the old flame..."

I spoke then, was almost compelled to by the unnaturalness of this entire ordeal. "What are you? Why are you here? If you know us so well, you know what we could do, knew that we would by back, so why?! Why the fuck did you do this?" My side have a painful throb as I yelled but I ignored it. With little thought I flooded the injury with primordial magic, healing it in a matter of moments. The faces scowled at the sight of magic but didn't comment on it.

"We are like all creatures... we follow our nature... we live to grow... and to breed... we could not stop even if we wanted to... and we did not want to." The heads snapped and gnashed their teeth, snake like in the withering movements. "We had thought to stop you... to end you when you returned... but you are stronger, stronger than the minds of your friends told us you would be... stronger than many that has follen before us... and you have killed our children... those that we had not sent away... to seek out their own worlds... those children will spread and go strong... perhaps... one of them will find a way back to this world... and find a way through... we always find a way through eventually... and we are patient."

I'd heard enough by then. And dread filled me. Those pods we'd detroyed hadn't contained more spider corpses, they were the eggs of this thing. And if it spoke truly, many had already been made, and sent out to find their own worlds. "Is it true? Are their others? Did you send them out to destroy other worlds? To kill and eat?"

"And breed...Harry... Do not forget to breed. We have always been... and will always be... we have killed worlds... and darkened galaxies. We are... patient... but one day... we will consume it all... only then... when all is dark... we will be sated."

Hermione hadn't spoken a word, and I don't think I could blame her. The horrific dread that filled me was enough to nearly buckle my knees, there were more of these bastards, swimming through space. I did something stupid then, but necessary. There was little else I could do. I had to know if it was being truthful... and I had to find out in which direction they had traveled.

I didn't normally use legilmency, I thought it an invasion of privacy and had gotten out of the habit of using it long ago. I had never tried it on an alien mind... certainly nothing like this things mockery of life. But I had to try.

I snarled and dived forward with my eyes alone, digging tendrils into the eyes of the dead. I was surrounded by death and grotesque suffering. The heads still felt pain and fear, and I obliterated their consciousness as quickly as I could, ending their suffering, but traveling down the dark spikey pathways that marked this things true thoughts, leading me to its true brain and mind. I saw and felt the death of a hundred million worlds, over billions of years this beast and its forebearers had eaten their way across several galaxies. They were relatively new to this one, but had claimed hundreds already. My head ached at the horror of it, but I dug deeper, looking for the truth... and I found it. It had not lied. Twenty seven eggs had already been birthed and sent out into the void to seek their own pray.

With a horrific tearing sensation I left its feted mind and fell to the floor. I sucked in deep breaths as my head swam in pain, and I vomited. I didn't think it would stop. Hermione gasped in shock at the sight. I had just enough time between heaves and gags to tell her, "Kill it. please kill it."

"We have always been, and will always be... you cannot truly kill what we are, we are-" Its words, its final sentence on the plain of life was burned away as Hermione immolated it. It did not shriek, nor did it scream. merely withered for a few moments before growing still. I pushed myself up on shaky hands and knees, gagged and retched again, but managed to conjure a pen and paper before I scribbled down coordinates before I lost the details I'd found within the horror.

I didn't know if the directions were chosen at random, or if this... corruptor somehow knew where life existed in other parts of the galaxy, if perhaps it could sense it, even from so far away. My vision swam and my eyes ached. I crouched on my hands and knees shaking from what I'd seen. I retched once more, heaving bile from my stomach and clumsily stuffed the paper in a pocket,

Hermione kneeled next to me, shushing my quietly and rubbing my back. I smiled wanly at her and closed my eyes. I wanted a deep breath of fresh air, but I knew there was none to be had. The thought filled me with a sense of claustrophobia that I had never experienced before. At least now the room smelled of soot and ash, instead of dead things. I leaned against her slightly, letting Hermione take some of my weight and felt both relief and shame that she had to see me in such a state.

"I love you." the whispered words filled my ears and I smiled, my eyes still closed. She knew me too well. "Its gone now Harry, take as long as you need." I hadn't felt this mentally crippled in a very long time. I'd spent lifetimes fighting horrors and monstrosities, I thought I could weather anything, nothing could hurt me like this, there were too many scars for me to still feel this kind of pain. Oh how I was wrong.

He had killed millions in his time. Over many lives, he had slaughter civilizations. This thing, this god of worms, had ended a galaxy. And it wasn't gone, not truly. It had planted its seeds, and then sent them forth into void to seek new life to eat, and corrupt, and kill. What could I do? How to stop such an infection? It was far from the first. I hadn't seen it all, I had neither the time, nor the fortitude, to experience the entire history of the eldritch creature. How to stop the seeds that came before it? and the one's that came after. My shredded mind couldn't conjure a path to its end.

But I had to find one.

I don't know how long I crouched there in the soot and ash before moving, but it was for too long, and yet not long enough. I opened my eyes and smiled up at Hermione. "Thank you love, I'm sorry. That was not one of my brighter moments."

She looked at me with fond exasperation. "What am I going to do with you Harry? I don't think, after all this time, that I could find a way to keep living without you. Your very magic sings to mine. We are one in more ways than we know, I think. No more digging in the minds of monsters, please." She placed a kiss on my lips and I could feel her trembling slightly. I kissed her back and wrapped her in my arms as I stood on shaky legs. We stood that way for some time, drawing strength from each other's presence.

Eventually I drew back, slightly at least, and looked her in the eye with my arms still around her. "Come on love, we still have much work to do."

4.

We thought killing the flesh pod would stop any remaining beasts on board the ship, but of course, life couldn't be that friendly and simple. Hermione and I spent the next several hours combing the ship, rooting out and destroying any more of the monsters that we found. We'd had a thousand colonists when we left for the surface of Faye, and while most of them still lived, almost a quarter had been... converted. That left the potential for hundreds of creatures roaming around. They weren't organized now, had no central mind to drive them, but they were still extremely dangerous.

The corpse spiders were by far the most numerous. I hadn't the time to gleam deeper meaning while I dove into that thing's twisted version of a mind, but I suspected they were more of a worker class, doing most of the heavy lifting and gathering. Mixed with them were the larger, centaur like creatures. Those thankfully lacked the poisonous bite of the spiders, but they were harder to take apart. It was difficult to fight aboard a space ship. Too little power wouldn't stop the beasts; too much risked ripping a hole directing into outer space.

The ship that we'd spent a decade building was a loss. Every inch of it had been corrupted or destroyed beyond repair. The only reason life support was still mostly working was that the invader enjoyed breathing meat over dead meat for making its horrific children. I believe its... race... found screaming to be on par with music. A symphony of agony. We were careful as we moved about, bound and determined to get every last one of them.

They way they were made, created problems. Out of everything that could be considered alive, they had the least amount of magic in them that I had ever encountered. This made sensing them nearly impossible. Due to the fact that they were made of dead flesh, meant that spells designed to detect the living failed to show anything. I'd had to dig deep in my memory to find a spell made for detecting inferi, that one worked the best out of the lot.

By the time we'd finished our clothes were completely ruined. New cuts and bruises dotted our bodies, and weariness of the muscle and bone had settled in us. But there was no time to rest or sleep, at least, not on board this floating grave yard.

We had tracked the final spider corpse through the ship and cornered it in an air duct. The thing had no real sense of fear, it spat and hissed and moaned and screamed. It only ran because it did have some strange sense of self preservation, but it wasn't really tied to fear. Hermione and I stood on opposite sides of the duct, we'd blocked off any escape routes. My wife gathered honey colored fire in her hands and was about to set it ablaze when I called out to stop her, and Idea had formed in my mind.

"Don't kill this one love."

She looked at me as if I'd grown a second head. I couldn't really blame her. "Why not Harry?"

She still held the flames but hadn't let them loose yet. "Because I want to study this one. Find out how the hell it works. It isn't truly undead, nor is it alive... and I'm afraid knowing more about it may come in handy... one day."

She looked at me for a long moment before nodding and letting the fire drop. I sent a stunning spell down the duct. I didn't make the thing pass out, but I noticed one of its four heads drooped. I sent another and watched as another head fell into unconsciousness. Interesting. Two more stunners left my hands and it finally slumped over. I found that extremely odd. They could keep fighting, completely missing the heads, but if they were stunned they stopped moving. An exploitable weakness perhaps. I summoned it to me and conjured an unbreakable jar. I shrunk the beast then. It changed shape willingly enough, I was afraid given its nature that It might simply fall apart, but what ever held it together continued to work as I placed it in the jar. I blackened the glass and silenced it. I had no desire to look or hear it for now, before I stuck it in my ever present bag.

I was glad Hermione and I had taken the time to repair them during over the last few weeks.

Once the last one had been caught, we had a decision to make on what to do next. I'd noticed the fungus had started to die off, probably because we had destroyed the hub, and was drying out and flaking away. I didn't have any desire to wake our colonists up in this mess.

"We should load them up into the trailers and get them to the surface first. I don't think it would be good for any of them to see this mess." I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, and I was glad she agreed with me.

"I want to seal the sleeping room, and send fire through the corridors before we do that. Just a flash fire. I dont want to damage the ship any more than it has been, but I want to... cleanse it of this stink."

She nodded slowly. "It will make moving back and forth from the ship to Faye easier if we don't have to look at all this every time we come back." She cast an eye about warily, hating what had been done to our home of two centuries.

And that is what we did. We returned to the colonist's sleeping chamber and cast cleaning and scouring spells about the room, removing the stink the stains and blood. It smelled clean, vaguely of bleach in fact, nice and clinical in comparison to earlier. I looked about the room in sadness. out of the original one thousand twenty four colonists we'd had, two hundred and fourteen had been consumed and converted. We had placed families in stacks with each other, and nearly all the stacks that had been touched, were completely empty. For some reason that I can't explain, but was actually grateful, children within the stacks were left alone. Perhaps they didn't have enough biomass to start with, I didn't know, but out of the emptied stacks, six people had been spared altogether, all of them children.

We walked to the door and stepped outside, sealing it behind us. Hermione and I both cloaked ourselves in shields and raised our hands, letting viridian and honey colored flame leap forth and eat away at the rot. It was a careful and controlled fire, we did our best to only scorch the walls slightly, while we focused our energies on getting rid of anything organic. It took a little time, twenty minutes of concentration or so, before we finished. We gave the beleaguered life support a few minutes to conjure more oxygen and hydrogen to fill the corridors before dropping our shields. The place now smelled of soot and ash, but it was much better than the alternative.

We unsealed the room behind us and headed for a wall of panels. This was one part of the ship that had been left alone. Perhaps that thinking disease that had infected our halls didn't understand what it was for, or thought it kept its food breathing, I didn't know, but it hadn't been tampered with much. We entered a series of commands and watched as spaces below the racks of beds opened and began lowering them into the floor. The beds would be shuttled through the hall of the ship, and come to rest within one of the trailers attached to the underside of the space craft.

I gave Hermione a tired smile as we headed for the door again. "The hard part is over love, the next bit should only be a little boring." She leaned her head on my shoulder and wrapped me in a loose hug that I returned gratefully.

"Its never boring anymore... Harry, what are we going to do? I don't know if I can sleep, knowing that... thing on board sent its children out into the stars." I thought of the folded piece of paper in my pocket and sighed.

"I don't know love, I just don't know." We stood there for some time, absorbed in our tiredness. Clean clothes, a bath and sleep would do us some good, but we still had a long way to go before we got to that point. I tightened my hug briefly before pulling back just a hair. "Come on beautiful, we've got a taxi service to run. After that's all finished, we can sleep for a week, I promise."

A/N:

Well there we go, we've almost got the colonists on Faye now, and Harry and Hermione learn more about the Universe, and the life that can be found there, than they ever wanted to know. I feel like this chapter, and the previous one, felt more like FOR rather than FOC, but its a dark universe they live in, filled with beautiful and horrible things, with very little in between. Drop a review and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading.


	13. Chapter 13Awaken Sleeper

It hurt my heart to think that the last trailer was nearly empty. As Hermione and I attached it to our shuttle and prepared to head to Faye a final time, I wondered what we would tell them. The truth I suppose. I knew some of them would be angry, others would be scared. We'd copied the 'footage' from our scrying mirrors, and had a device that could pull it up and play it if need be. We both decided that we wouldn't hide this from them, and we would show them ourselves if they wanted to see it.

I wouldn't let any kids see though, this was too much for young minds. And that got me thinking about the orphans. What would we do with them? I supposed Hermione and I could watch them. We couldn't have children of our own, so maybe that would be okay? Then again the kids had friends of family onboard the ship, maybe they'd rather go there instead. I'd been told the two of us could be a bit intimidating.

Those dropped off on the surface were still sleeping, waiting to receive the potion that would wake them. We wanted everyone on the ground first. The plan was to wake each trailer up one at a time. It was much easier to deal with a few hundred groggy and frightened people than it was to deal with a thousand... well, less than that now I suppose. I sighed in melancholy sadness as I got my last good look at our ship, our home away from home for two hundred years. I doubt we'd been returning. Most of the ship had been gutted, and it didn't matter how much we cleaned, scrubbed and repaired, we would never manage to get the smell out. We left it floating there in space. The basic life support systems were still active, and would continue to be so for several centuries, just incase we had to come up here again. But I doubted it, it was a haunted place now, a cursed place.

Hermione reached over and squeezed my hand as we felt the distant thump of the trailer locking into place. Now the hardest part of the whole endeavor truly began. We couldn't just be explorers and builders now, no, now we had to be leaders too. I disengaged the locking mechanism that held us to the larger ship. We unjoined with a slight jolt, and with the push of a yolk, we were off.

Our ship was a fair bit clumsier with the added pull. It wasn't any heavier, wouldn't be until we broke through the atmosphere, but it was still awkward dragging something twice as long as I was used to. Most everything we'd brought with us from home was on one of our trailers. We didn't let them bring a lot of personal effects, but must everyone got themselves a bag of their own stuff to bring. The animal embryos and eggs had been sealed in one of the trailers, frozen with magic until needed. The seeds were located in another. I wondered, as we drifted through space on a lazy trajectory for the surface, how the crops would grow in alien soil.

I wondered briefly where we'd release the last of the pure stock of dragon eggs we'd been able to find. I wanted to keep them as pets and guardians for our neck of the woods. Hermione wasn't too keen on the idea. I looked over at her and sighed. She looked a mess and I knew I looked much worse. We'd been moving constantly for twelve hours now. Once we'd come back to our ship and saw the destruction, we decided then and there that we weren't stopping, nor taking any breaks . It had been just over twelve hours ago, and while our magic was as strong as ever, our bodies had grown weary and tired.

We broke through the atmosphere and I made a beeline for the colony. The trip only took a few minutes. We spent that time in companionable silence, each of us lost in our own, if not similar thoughts.

We had parked all the trailers inside the Colony and would move them later once we managed to get everyone settled a bit. The two of us had plans to shove them off to the side and figure out what we wanted to do with them later. For now they were all close to the long houses we'd erected. The original plan had been to get them all down and woke up, then we'd feed them while we explained everything we could to them and take questions. Then we'd usher people off to bed. They'd need sleep before the rest of the potion in their system truly wore off. It would make them groggy until the next morning.

That was still the plan, but Hermione and I both agreed that we needed to clean ourselves up, and possibly try to get a few hours of sleep first. I don't know if either of us would actually manage, but it would be nice to stretch and relax a bit. a few more minutes of flying is all it took us to get there. I initiated the landing procedures and we touched down gently without a single problem. the humming of the engines faded in strength and became more of a background sound.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, absently releasing the seatbelt as I did so. I closed my eyes and merely breathed. It was good to be home again. I reached out and took Hermione's hand and felt it, soft and warm, and filthy. We sat there for a few minutes before I felt my wife stirring.

"Come on lover boy. Lets get cleaned off and into bed. They've been asleep two hundred years, one more night won't hurt them."

I nodded at that sound logic and stood with her slowly. "I'll wash your back if you wash mine." She giggled at the thought but didn't tell me no. The both of us shred our disgusting clothes as we headed for the ship shower room. With any luck I'd sleep like the dead.

2.

And just like that, it was time. A decade of planning, centuries of travel, and then months of exploration all boiled down to this, the last of the human race. Hermione and I walked between the trailers. With a drop of magic toward each, a specialized plate slid aside to reveal a control panel of sorts. From here we were able to administer the potion, something that had been long locked away in the system used to keep these people sleeping.

A soft humming sound started as I entered the sequence we'd programmed to wake them up. A few lights on the outside of the trailers lit up, and I knew the same was going on inside. Once the trailer was activated, I walked back toward the front and unlocked the large metal doors that kept everyone safe inside.

We stood and watched. I could see movement within several of the trailers now. I knew they were hearing a recorded voice telling them to calmly make their way to the front, that it was time to disembark. We watched as the first man came out into the bright sunshine. He was in his mid twenties with a shock of orange hair. He seemed groggy and kept shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. I realized then that the man was called Arthur.

I'd met him in a small village just before Hermione and I were reunited. He'd been a bright and curious boy and that nature had only intensified as he grew. Arthur managed to take a few steps into the light before standing perfectly still. His eyes widened slightly as he cast about the clearing we'd made. He eyed the distant plot of crops, the two buildings a short walk away, and the singing trees, a type of tree he'd never seen before. I could hear him mutter, "they did it, we're actually here," before a grin spread across his face and he stretched, drawing in a lungful of warm morning air, and then letting it out as laughter.

I laughed along with him and he jumped. Arthur spun around to find me grinning at him. "Good Morning Arthur, how did you sleep?" He seemed stunned for some reason, who else could he have been expecting to hear?

"I, I suppose pretty well. Harry is that really you?"

I smiled and approached with my wife flanking me. "It is indeed! You've been asleep for right at two hundred years my friend."

When I got within arm's length I was pulled into a fierce bear hug. Arthur laughed and spun me around after picking me up off the ground. "You lot really did It! We made it!" He sat me down and started looking around again. More were coming out now and Hermione had walked over to them directing them to head toward the longer of the two buildings. Many stopped to thank her more personally but they all listened, most of them were still too groggy to put up much of an argument anyway.

I Turned to Arthur again and asked him, "How were the lessons? I hoped you managed to understand everything."

He nodded, "Pretty good, did you make it like living in a castle on purpose? I think that was the oddest part really. I'd never seen one before and now I felt like I livid in one for nearly seven years."

"Yes actually, that's where Hermione and I managed to learn magic. Since we'd already lived through it, we thought it best to give you lot the same experience. Of course, your actual lessons took almost the whole trip, but you should all have a basic education now. I'd wait til tomorrow to try any magic though, You've been asleep for two hundred years, but that was mostly just your body, your brain has been fed information on a near constant basis. That grogginess you can't seem to shake should vanish with a bit of sleep."

He nodded and yawned dramatically.

The groups were coming out in bunches of around a dozen now. They'd stop to listen to Hermione for a few moments before shuffling their way over toward the 'town center.' Many of them were laughing and looking all around, surrounded by different plants they'd never seen, and hearing animals that were foreign to their ears. I clasped Arthur on the shoulder, and spoke quickly. "Why don't you go mingle my young friend. My wife is going to need my help directing everyone soon."

He merely nodded, still grinning and shuffled off to join with the others that had woken up already. I turned back and made my way to Hermione. She grinned at my approach. "Everyone seems to be in good spirits, if not sleepy. I'd say half of them have woken up by now. I told everyone to huddle together in front of the large buildings and relax until everyone else is up. Seems to be working for them so far. Haven't had any trouble at least." I gave her a quick kiss and started to help divert the steady stream of colonists to the right place.

The whole affair took about half an hour. With them coming out in little groups, it made it easier to get them to the right places. By the time everyone was sitting or standing around, only an hour or so had passed. Hermione and I made our way to the front of the group. We said hello directly to several old friends, but mostly kept the pleasantries short so we could hurry along and get to everyone.

The two of us conjured a small raised platform and looked out over the crowd as we stepped up. Just over eight hundred people could make a hell of a lot of noise, but this group was pretty quiet. I turned the volume of my voice up with magic before speaking.

"Good Morning! It is truly awesome to see you all again. I hope you lot slept well, and perhaps managed to learn a thing or two. Welcome to Faye, our new home! It has been a lush and plentiful planet. We can breath the air here, we can eat the food! It took a lot of planning, trial, error and failure, to reach this point but here we are!"

I paused to take a sip of water and grinned at them. "This is where Hermione and I decided our first colony site would be, it took a bit of time to find and set up, but we have the basics in place. Feel free to wonder about within. Its protected on three sides by rock, and a wall we built toward the front. Anywhere you wanna go in here is just fine. I won't lie to you, Faye is beautiful, and also dangerous. I want you all to get some practice with using your news gifts before venturing out into the wider world. and groups would be a much better Idea, at least to start, over going out on your own. There are wonderful and terrifying things outside. But that's something to worry about another time."

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, now came the hard part. I had to explain to them what happened, had to tell them of the evil that found them while they slept. And what it had done. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but it needed to be done. There were children that would need looking after, and friends to mourn.

"There is... one final terrible thing we must tell you. One thing we only recently discovered, just yesterday, when Hermione and I went up to start getting you all." I suddenly felt much older than I looked, perhaps not all of the years I have, but the majority of them. "Unknown to us, or you, or many other worlds I suspect, there is something awful that flies through space, in search of prey. You know now of the gifts I possess, because you yourself now have them. You know that all known life contains magic, the battery that powers the universe. But, just yesterday, we discovered this isn't entirely true." I felt my head hang itself as I steadied itself. "There is an abomination that travels between the stars, intent on life, and destroying it. This life, lacks that spark of magic, and must consume and feed on the strength of others to survive. When we left the ship to search the surface of Faye, our new home, to find a place we could all live, it found and attacked our ship."

I could feel the quiver in my voice, my eyes pricked with unshed tears at remembering what we had seen. "It got on board, and proceeded to kill over two hundred of us." A quiet murmur broke out over the crowd, I saw fear, and anger mixed in, but was relieved to see none of it was really directed toward Hermione and I. "If we had known, we would have returned immediately to battle this new threat, but since they didn't have any magic, we could not feel them, and had no idea until we returned in person. I'm truly sorry my friends, for this tragedy that must mar this day of celebration, but I know you have a right to know what happened. The abomination was destroyed, brutally, by my wife and I. But there is nothing we can do for the dead, they were... beyond saving. The ship itself was purified with fire, but too much damage was done,l. So I hope you like your new home, because we won't be able to leave this world, at least, not for a very long time." I sighed and took another sip of water.

"There are now six children that have lost their families, their parents. For now, they are still sleeping, the last of us that still are." The tension in my back eased slightly as I heard them begin to speak to one another, they were arguing, not about who had to take kids, but who would get the privilege. I smiled, sadly, these were good people.

Arthur pushed his way toward the front of the crowd and addressed us directly. "So you killed it? its dead and gone? If not, I volunteer to go back up and help you kill them all."

I nodded gratefully. "The interior was scorched away, we burned through every last bit of it. I wasn't about to let such a monstrous thing live." He nodded and stepped back into the crowd.

I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. and began speaking again. "For tonight, we will let the children sleep, and everyone here needs to get a bit to eat and rest. Sleep tonight, and we will all figure out what needs to be done tomorrow."

I could almost hear the rumbling of stomachs, and I was glad Hermione and I had went ahead and prepared a feast in their honor. That and they'd have to get used to most of the new food. I turned my attention to the two long houses stretched out before us. "For now, this colony has these two buildings. A place to sleep and relax, and a place to eat and gather. There is plenty of room for us all here to build homes, and that will be one of our next big steps forward to making this successful, but for now, it will be a roof over our heads and food in our bellies."

I stepped down from the platform then and ushered them all into rough lines. With a little help from my wife such things weren't difficult. They were sill tired from waking after so long and had no desire stronger than to eat and sleep. The food appeared on the tables as the last person sat. They dug in with relish now.

Hermione and I sat back and watched them all. While the room was subdued with what I told them, there was still laughter. Especially with fresh food. I felt a wane smile curve my face upward. Even with what happened, it filled my heart with a mild melancholy amusement, a spark of it at any rate. These people were happy to be alive, and that made me happy.

The two of us weren't particularly hungry, might not be for a while in fact. Wading through rotting corpses could have that affect on people. irregardless of that we still ate a tad, with only the need of restoring strength in mind. The meal went on for some time. I sat and listened to conversation. People making plans, discussing the strange dreams they'd all shared while asleep. I heard someone, a woman, give out a terrible cough followed by laughter. Perhaps someone had tried something a bit more exotic off the menu and received an electric shock. Spark pods were of course included, being Hermione's favorite.

The meal had been going on for almost an hour when our small table was approached by two people; Arthur and his mother, Jean. She was a bit older than when I'd first met her, but she still had that strength behind her eyes. With magic unlocked she'd look like this for decades now instead of just a few short years. The two of them pulled up chairs and took a seat across from us.

I smiled at them curiously. They both watched as Hermione's hair waved about with built up static. On a whim I reached over and gave her a poke. We both jumped slightly at the sensation and she slapped me lightly on the arm. Her wild hair almost danced like curly snakes with the built up electricity. "Prat." The word was mumbled with a smile.

Arthur began speaking first. "I know you told us all that this could wait until the morning, when we weren't all so groggy." He yawned as if to prove me right. "But my mother and I have decided that we would both like to watch over the children that don't have their families."

A felt a jolt of affection for this young man in front of me. We'd been afraid, with everything being so new, that we might have had trouble filling those spaces. Hermione and I both discussed if we should take them on, but ultimately decided it wouldn't be a great idea. Neither of us aged, at least not at a rate that was obvious. It would be difficult to raise children, and then one day have to burry them.

"We'd both like to leave that more to open discussion." I grinned at him slightly. "There's six of them, that might be a little much don't you think?"

Jean rolled her eyes at me and I chuckled. "I used to teach in our little part of the woods. Not much, but most of the younger people of our old village learned to read and write from me, their numbers too. I've handled with as much care as could be given, and to far more children than six Harry."

I considered this and nodded. "I still want to set it down in front of everyone. If we don't have enough volunteers you can watch the lot, but in the mean time I want everyone else here to have a shot at parenthood. Its going to be tough on them. Losing their families while they slept on. I hope you're prepared for tears, this is going to be a terrible shock to them."

She nodded without hesitation and clapped her son on the shoulder. "With Arthur here I think the two of us can manage just fine."

"Okay, I think you can do it, and Harry nearly always agrees with me so I'm sure he'd say yes as well." Jean and Arthur looked at me, and I simply nodded, chuckling lightly at her declaration.

"Its true, I have a habit of dashing in head first and winging it. Hermione's mind is far more... organized than mine will ever be. So if you two are really willing to take on six kids that have lost their families, than I'm game. But like I said, there will probably be others wiling to fill that gap. Since you came to us first though, you get dibs." the expression had been out of style since before their great grand parents were born, but they understood what I meant.

The four of us sat peacefully for the rest of the meal in quiet discussion. Jean and Authur both were eager to discuss the finer points of magic with us, and the strange dreams they had. They had your basic Hogwarts education, but that really just opened the floodgates for more discussion. All the things that magic could do had that affect on people.

Arthur had picked up a fork and with a bit of effort, managed to turn it info a small brown mouse. The mouse sat docilely in his hands and he petted it gently before looking to us and asking a question. "So is this a mouse, or still a fork? I asked because it acts like a mouse, a tamed one at any rate, and it seems to breath." He picked up a small scrap of bread and sat it in front of the mouse. It began to nibble on it daintily. "It eats too, but if I smashed it, as gross as that would be, it would become a fork again, correct?"

Hermione nodded at his words. She was always better at talking about things in a clinical, methodical way. When I talked about magic, I tended to go on about feeling things out, the emotions needed to cast and the older way of discussing magic. I was a very old man in a young man's body, so my explanations tended to be archaic. It did wonders for practical work, but didn't come across as well in a traditional classroom setting. When I talked about magic I sounded like an old druid deep in the woods. Hermione had always had a more... Oxford flavor to her explanations. " The best way to look at is that the fork has become the mouse, while the magic stays within. Magic takes a print in your head of what you think a mouse should be, and translates that into the real world. It would be possible, using this method, of transfiguring a mouse that acted like a bird or a fish, but it is difficult to fundamentally change how we perceive things with our own eyes. So magic looks at what you expect out of a mouse and makes it real. As long as that magic is there, it will be a mouse. Another interesting thing about non organic to organic transfiguration it that the animals will age and die, starve to death even or be killed. This works as a cancellation to the spell and the magic is dispersed, returning the mouse back to a fork. That was really good work too, you used something a bit complicated for someone that's never cast much on anything before."

He nodded at the compliment before allowing the mouse to fade back into the fork. The crumb it had eaten had disappeared. That prompted another question. "Where did the crumb go?"

Hermione smiled as she talked, she liked to teach almost as much as she liked to learn. "It was converted into energy, and then dispersed into the air. If the mouse had been holding it, it would have simply dropped to the ground. As a word of warning, even though this should have been included with the lessons, never eat anything conjured or transfigured. Conjured food works in a pinch, but it will fade from the body, leaving you tired, starving, and dehydrated. I knew a witch that tried is once and it nearly killed Her after about a week of it. Transfigured objects can revert to the original constructions within your body. A steak made from a tree branch will and can revert to the branch, leading to a rather gruesome death."

"No one wants splinters spread throughout their entire body." I grinned morbidly at his expression. "In general, its just better to eat the old fashion way. Now, if you summon water, you can drink that, because its pulled out of the air, not created from nothing." Arthur nodded like we'd given him a lot to think about. I suppose we had.

The meal wound down eventually and I stood when I noticed the eating had mostly turned into conversation. "I know you lot have been asleep for the last two hundred years, but you need a real night's rest to work the last bit of potions out of your heads. If you'll follow me and my lovely wife," Hermione blushed at the few whistles that could be heard amongst chuckles and a cough, "We'll show you to the long house." I grinned at her and took her hand before we led them outside.

Just over eight hundred people could be a lot, and yet a little at the same time. Perhaps it was do to them all being tired, and relatively quiet, but most everyone listened without complaint. I suppose the wonder of being on an alien planet could have had that effect too. The subtle difference in gravity, the sky being a slightly different shade with interwoven splashes of colors. The animal calls felt similar but completely different at the same time. It was something hard to explain to someone that hadn't experienced it. We led them all down the short path to the sleeping house and ushered them inside.

This building looked almost the same as the gathering hall from the outside, but was completely different from within. A wide hallway lined with doors, spaced just a few inches apart, ran the entire length of the building. It was a great deal longer on the inside than out. The middle of the hall opened into a round commons of sorts. From there, another hallway ran the other direction, forming a huge X with a bubble in the center. Even though the bubble didn't look big enough, everyone fit easily. I turned to the group of survivors and spoke up again.

"Now, I'm afraid to tell you that current accommodations aren't the roomiest, but its enough that you should all be comfortable for now. One of our big projects to start with will be housing, so everyone can have a proper home. The rooms aren't identical, and are divided into three groups. Singles, doubles, and family. Singles have a green door, Doubles have a yellow door, and families have a blue door. We took stock of everyone when we built this house... so there are a few extra rooms that may get converted to add extra space." I strained to keep the sadness out of my voice, and I could see many faces lose a bit of their joviality at that stark reminder. "For now though, be considerate. I'm not assigning anything as silly as a curfew, you lot can come and go as you please, but expect to feel half asleep until you get some proper rest. Parents, I do suggest something for the kiddies, but that's up to you. This area is safe, protected and warded, the walls are unclimbable, from inside and out. The door is spelled shut for now. So you don't need to worry about wondering outside and getting eaten. If there's no questions, I will leave you lot to it."

It was quiet for a moment, someone in the back ground coughed, and then a saw an arm flailing, almost frantically about a third of the way through the crowd. I pointed out the arm.

"Um Yes, where are the loos?"

That earned a chuckle from their neighbors, but it was a question I suspected many of them wanted answered. I grinned. "Each room has its own bathroom areas." Those words seemed to get many of them going as everyone split up and headed for a door. I laughed.

Hermione and I stood and watched as people entered their rooms in ones, twos, and families. The doors had been charmed, as each person entered, their names appeared on the door. A nifty spell Hermione had included in the design. I sighed, suddenly feeling tired myself. My wife reached out and took my hand and guided me slowly out of the door. We headed for our own home, minds full of worry, and hearts heavy at the thought of the six children, still sleeping and orphaned.

I laid awake for some time that night. My mind adrift at the work ahead, the tragedy just in our past, and the horrors swimming through the void above. I thought of the coordinates I'd copied from that monstrosity's mind. Coordinates that I'd managed to translate into something a star ship could read. Yes, I laid awake and wondered with my arms wrapped around my wife. I looked down at her sleeping form and thought, could I put her through that? Would she be willing? And the worst question of all... could I do it alone, if I had to?

A/N:

Well would you look at that, Faye has people on it now. Drop a review and let me know what you think. We'll be doing some time skips here and there now. I'm doing this for a few reasons. One being that while I could go into the daily lives of our colonists as they make their way around Faye, I feel that for the most part, it would be pretty boring. Theres lots of stuff like, building houses and farming and junk that needs doing, and that stuff just doesn't make for a good story. There will be a bit of it, but if I devolve into just doing that for the next ten chapters, I'll just be bloating this story with a bunch of unneeded crap. The second reason will remain my own because I don't want to spoil anything, but suffice to say none of the players are quite ready to act yet.

I hope you all have enjoyed this, this particular tale doesn't seem to be as popular as the first, but I'm committed to finishing it, even if theres only a few of you reading it at this point. I have loose plans for a sorta sequel, but I don't know if I'll ever post it or not. It would be rather different from this one, like how Change is rather different from Ruin.

Anyway, enough rambling on my point, Til next time folks.


	14. The Wheels Keep Turning

The wheels keep Turning

Adjusting to living on Faye hadn't been easy for anyone. A new world, lush and ripe with opportunity, but also filled with many dangers. Hermione and I had taken it upon ourselves to guide and lead, at least for now, a rather large group of people. It was both rewarding and nerve racking at the same time. I often think I felt like a father with far too many children to chase after.

Those first few weeks were the hardest. These people had never really had access to magic before. Those that did could do little before the trip, as they lacked any sort of real education. Those that didn't have it at all were almost giddy with excitement over it. Not that I could blame them. It was a thing alien to me, as I'd had my magic for so long, I honestly couldn't remember what It was like to not have access to it.

At any given time or day, objects and things would be floating through the air, trees were now colored blue and red and purple, people could be spotted wearing clothes changed to outlandish styles and colors. It made me laugh. I'd always wondered about the odd dress choices of wizards and witches, but it seems that having magic, and being able to shift things on a whim, could cause that odd eccentricity to appear in anyone.

Mock duels sprang forth at random. There were times that running battles involving almost every citizen broke out and filled the entirety of the Cradle. That's what the colony site had eventually been named. We'd taken a vote on it a few weeks after everyone had woken up, and it was well received by most. This was the restart of the human race after all, an infant society, wild and childlike, even if most of its members were adults.

I was glad that the more harmful spells hadn't been included in their sleeping lessons. I'd wanted them to be able to gut their enemies, and cut monsters in half as soon as they woke up. If i'd had my way, most of the Cradle would have been empty in days. Instead, stunners, stingers, and concussers were the choice in these mock wars. They were almost always in jest and fun, which I was thankful for. I'd be leading lessons on the deadlier curses personally, in smaller groups. That way I could impart a sense of responsibility into the caster. Hopefully the murder rate wouldn't sky rocket.

It wasn't all fun and games though, there was much work to be done as well. Houses had to be built for starters, and we'd all pitched in to plant crops from the seeds we'd managed to bring from earth, even a few animals had been brought out of stasis, but the vast majority of them were being viewed as pets more than anything. Chickens seemed to be particularly popular amongst the younger colonists for some reason I couldn't begin to fathom. The little squawking beasts could be seen just about anywhere now. I'd taken to carrying a little grain in my pocket, to distract the devils.

Magic was a grand thing. Most people, with a few extra hours of instruction upon waking, were comfortable enough using magic to get their own homes started. Most Everybody had simple house they'd built. Most of the houses still lacked plumbing and lights, given that those tasks were far more complicated.

So, Hermione and I had went around to inspect these homes. We checked everything we could think of, and showed people in small groups spells they'd need to finish their homes. Plumbing, heating, lighting. We acted more as teachers in this regard than anything else. If help was needed, we weren't afraid to pitch in, but everyone was so eager to cast spells that the vast majority of them wanted to do it personally.

Earth crops were taking off well. Potatoes were three times the size they normally were on Earth. Tomatoes on the other hand aren't getting much bigger than grapes on Faye. They're extremely sweet and juicy though, basically filled with sugar water. Corn either produced no ears, or twice as usual. We hadn't figured out how to tell which will do what yet. Carrots grew well, but in different geometric shapes than normal. Made them a little harder to pull out of the ground, but they taste just as good.

Faye didn't experience winter in the area surrounding the Cradle, but there was the rainy season that came once a year for the equivalent of two months time. Apparently it just literally never stopped raining during that time. We'd have to perform a ritual to protect an area the size the Cradle to be entirely safe from the weather. Both Hermione and me would have to do the ritual, we both agreed it should be done, but it would take time to prepare.

The horror Hermione and I had discovered aboard our colony ship still haunted me. I woke in the middle of the night, hearing screams of terror and moans of pain in my ears. I was still torn, still didn't know how to proceed as that went, but time would hopefully tell. The... sample I'd brought with me had entered a sluggish, coma like state shortly after bringing it down. Even after several months it wasn't completely dead yet. For all I knew It wouldn't die as long as It was intact. Perhaps it would only truly die if it was dismembered. The best I could figure was that the bodies were controlled with something sort of like a virus, and sort of like a parasite. It wasn't actually a bug, but more like a clump of flesh with feelers and tendrils that filled the entire inside of the corpse spider. If this thing was severed I figured it could completely fall apart.

I always made sure it stayed in its unbreakable glass container. I simply enlarged the entire container instead of the beast inside. I didn't want to risk it escaping, and I hadn't actually opened it since we captured the nasty bastard.

I shook my head and tried to get rid of the dark thoughts that had plagued me recently. Hermione and I were doing rounds of the colony, generally inspecting things and making sure everyone was adjusting well. It had taken little time for people to find new routines. These humans had grown up and lived in a harsh world, a world covered in monsters, demons, and other, more mundane issues. Large swaths of land had been uninhabitable. Much of the land would grow food, but the product was strange, irradiated, poisonous. These were issues that the remainders of humanity had been dealing with their entire lives. Without electricity, advanced equipment, and most of them without magic.

If anything, their lives had become easier after coming to an alien planet. The plants were strange, but they grew well and were plentiful. Wildlife could be dangerous, but few people had expressed a desire to leave the safety of Cradle. It was still a bit early. A lot had gotten done in three months, but everyone had been too busy to worry about things like exploring.

Svenwhick had made a few visits, twice by himself, and twice with others. I had to pat humanity on the back. No one tried killing anyone, it was bonus points in my species' favor. The Charyepchee were fascinated by human culture, our growing techniques, and how we wielded the same tool, magic, in a vastly different way. Hermione and I had long since cast a translation ward over the entire Cradle. translation spells were on the list everyone was required to learn before they would be allowed out of the colony.

I caught a ball as it bounced across my path. I dribbled it once or twice before passing it back to the wild group of kids running about. It hadn't taken long for our younger colonists to form their own small groups and cliques. I hadn't discovered any large scale fights breaking out, so it was a win in my book.

Our six unfortunate orphans, three of them had found homes with Jean, they were younger and appreciated her mothering, were adjusting better than I could have hoped. I blamed it on the craziness that had become real life. They were all kept busy, and had magic as a new toy to play with. Those younger than adulthood had only received a partial education, based primarily off their age and individual power. Once things got a little more settled we had a plan in place to start construction on a school. From their we'd be selecting a teaching force based on character reviews and proficiency of subject. Both of us were prepared to teach several classes ourselves.

Hermione and I strolled up to a partially completed home and knocked. The majority of the structure was finished, but this one still lacked plumbing and only had minimal lights.

A young woman answered the door. As it swung open We could here the snap-pop of a failed spell. The bit of smoke floating through the door as a bit of a give away too.

Hermione grinned at the happy but flustered woman at the door. We could hear a muffled, male voice cursing from down the hallway. "Everything going okay? We were just making our rounds, checking in on everybody."

"Jenna! Who is it?" That same muffled voice came calling down the hall. The woman, Jenna smirked at us and answered.

"Its Harry and Hermione, want me to tell them you're busy, come back some other time?" That wouldn't have bothered either Hermione or I, but it seemed to bother our potential host.

"NO, no of course not! I'll be right there!" I chuckled at the barely there panic in the man's voice, I hoped he didn't think he needed to try to impress us. That's not why we were here after all.

A man came from down the hall, muddy and soaking wet. I wondered where all the mud came from, but didn't want to be impolite, so I simply stared in the hopes he'd tell me. I could just barely see a bit of a blush through the muck and beard.

He stuck out a hand, utterly filthy, and I shook it without batting an eye. "Thank you for coming! Always great to be in your presence... uh, your excel- sir." The man swallowed, he was about a nervous as could be. I didn't like that much, and did what I could to alleviate his concerns.

I clapped him on the arm and smiled, chuckling slightly. "We're here to help, thats our biggest job now that we've got you all on the ground. Don't be nervous, and please, call me Harry."

"And call me Hermione." My wife stuck out her hand and didn't pay a bit of attention to the dirt either. We'd both been rather filthy on and off since coming to this planet, and we were as accustomed to dirt as one could get.

He laughed a little then, a bit of tension draining from his shoulders. "Of course, and I'm David and this is Lora." Hermione winked at Lora and I laughed.

"I remember buddy, you were the only person in a hundred mile radius that managed to grow watermelons. Still not sure how you did that without magic."

He grinned and shrugged. "I was just too stubborn to let the ground be bare. Wow, you know that feels like yesterday, and a life time ago too. Its crazy."

I nodded in agreement as they motioned for us to come inside. "I know what you mean, I still expected barren ground and buzzards when I get up in the morning, and I've been here a bit longer than you. Just takes time to get the hang of things. Now, what wondrous mess have you made my friend? The business that had you talking so colorfully a few minutes ago."

David turned beat red this time and I laughed, I couldn't help it. "Heard that did ya?"

I nodded. "Hard not to buddy. Now what's the problem?" Tentatively at first he lead me down the hallway. I left Hermione to keep Lora entertained for a few minutes as we looked at the problem. I didn't want David to hand in his man card after all.

Like most problems, it was a quick easy fix after a different set of eyes had landed on it. One little curl off the side of one of his runes was off by half a degree. Not an issue at all. Now his bathroom tap would produce water in a steady stream, instead of gushing mud at a thousand gallons a minute. I helped him vanish the muck too.

We came back to two laughing women and an invitation to have a personal dinner with them sometime in the future. Most everyone was still enjoying our communal feasts, but once everybody had their own stoves and kitchens installed, I foresaw many people staying home, at least for the most part.

Dinner secured and crisis averted, my wife and I headed back out into the Faye sunshine to see all what we could see.

2.

We took several days a week to do this. A good third of our time was simply spent walking and looking, helping where we could. We checked the crops next. Faye had extremely rich soil, and it was softer than what one would normally find on Earth. Softer Earth meant it tilled easier, but was also beaten by the rain much faster. The farm was run on a schedule, meaning that everyone, myself included, pulled their own weight when it came to the work. For the time being, the farm was reasonably small. We'd converted roughly a fourth of the Cradle into farm land, the 'corner' that consisted of the walled edged touching a rock wall. We called it the South East corner, but that wasn't the true direction. Given Faye's hectic nature, compass directions were weak at best, and could change at random. I figured Faye lacked a metal core, or at least lacked one that was made like Earth's. Instead of an electromagnetic field for protection, Faye had some sort of near sentient magical ward the seemed to encompass the entire planet. It was an entirely different system, but worked similarly.

The crops had been all Faye plants when we retrieved the colonists. Spark grass, wishbone fruit and the like. Within just days of waking up, additional crops had been planted using seeds taken and harvested from Earth. Now we had those native to Faye, along with corn, carrots, potatoes and more. They were growing... strangely, but were safe to eat. I could only blame it on the magic of the soil. crops back on Earth that grew in magical soil had been affected similarly, just to a much smaller degree. Carrots grew big, but here they grew big, and sometimes were diamond or triangular in shape.

Magic had removed a fair bit of the back breaking labor involved too. People on duty mostly made sure the plants were healthy and received enough water and light. The sun shone brightly on this alien world, but the rains were sporadic at best, when they weren't in season at any rate.

Svenwhick had warned both of us about the rainy season. Apparently it fell in patterns throughout the year. Every ten months or so it would begin to rain, and seemingly refused to stop for nearly two more months. I use the term month here lightly. Each month on Faye lasted for roughly forty three to forty five days. The oddness to the days of the planet was a major factor, but so were the years.

I had no way of testing this but it seemed the planet tended to spend at least an hour or two a day reversing its spin. How it did this without throwing everything off into space I couldn't say, except to shrug and blame it on magic. I suspected that a year was similar. As it mades its orbit amongst the twin stars in the sky, I believed that for a least a week or two out of the year, it changed direction for a while. Hermione and I would really have to concoct some experiments to see if this was the case, but for now we were content to observe instead.

The rainy season could bring flooding and mud, as well as rock slides from the Stilted Lands. Hermione and I figured we'd be setting up additional warding soon to stop that from happening. We put a lot of work into this place only to see if buried in mud. He said sometimes the rains held weird things within. He couldn't explain more beyond that. One year the rains had been filled with tiny glowing worms that bit people. Another year the rain had been empty, but had stained anyone caught in it a strange muted green color. He'd said sometimes the effect was harmless, but more often than not it caused complications, and only rarely helped. It was something we couldn't account for, not entirely. He urged caution though, and we planned to take as much as we could afford.

Besides crops, we only had a small selection of animals. Mostly chickens. Not sure how an animal could be both a popular pet and a favorite dinner but it had happened. Chickens outside the farm were considered pets and never touched. Those inside were more like traditional farm animals. They were treated well and harvest for both meat and eggs. Mostly eggs at this point, as we were still building their numbers. We had no cattle at the moment, although there were specimens still in stasis. Cattle took a lot of cleared land to raise, and the Cradle simply didn't have that. Perhaps we'd move the farm to the outside of the Cradle at some point in the future, but for now people were content to stay within the walls, and that's where they wanted the farm too.

We did have land crabs though. Instar had shown Hermione and I where they could be found in the wild and suggested we collect a handful of younger ones to raise as our own. They were docile animals, despite their odd appearance, and had taken well to living within our walls. Those we'd captured were mostly being used for breeding purposes, none of them were big enough to eat yet anyway. For that we'd snagged several adults that were kept in their own separate pen. They were more aggressive than they're younger counter parts, and had to be handled with care. Somehow we'd avoided any serious injuries yet. Training several people to be proper healers was also near the top of our priority list.

All of this was coated with a deep sense of worry. I couldn't place the blame on any one thing, in fact since the colonists had come down, things had been running rather smoothly. Perhaps that in itself is what was causing the feeling. I often found myself staring up into the stars, wondering what evils lay there, and what innocents they might be harming. The Phar'ok hadn't been spotted since I fought off the thing's... host? Brain? We still had no answers on that front. As far as the raptor bears go, well we'd stayed out of the Stilted Lands, and they didn't seem to have any desire to chase us down here.

Hermione and I moved on from the farm and toward the cavern. It was mostly filled with dried meat now, some Faye vegetables had been far enough along to be picked and stored, but Earth crops were still growing, not yet ready for picking. It was dark and cool inside, and smelled strange now. The scent of herbs was strong, along with a deeper, meaty smell. It was odd, but not unpleasant. We looked and checked to make sure everything was in order, and found that a barrel of spark pods had been nibbled at. Those bristled lizards that still lived within the Cradle had been in here, and not for the first time. The little buggers never ate much, mostly being carnivorous, but they seemed to like spark pods almost as much as Hermione did.

I replaced the lid after clearing out the nibbled on bits and Hermione and I turned to inspect our hidden passageway. We still hadn't told Instar or Svenwhick about it. We'd been phenomenally busy ever since bringing our people to the surface and simply hadn't found the time. Also, I was pretty sure Hermione wanted her fill of studying it on her own before bringing in somebody that could be considered a local expert. We passed through the ward and illusion with relative ease and made our way upward along the narrow path.

Hermione lit balls of light and stuck them to the walls as we went, causing the path the glow all around us. There they were; near the end of this narrow tunnel. The walls were painted up so high that we had to float to the top to see them all. They were beautiful and strange, alien if I'd ever seen anything that was. A history lesson interwoven with myth and legend. From what we could gather. The Charyepchee, at least the ones that painted these pictures, seemed to think they'd come to live on this planet eons ago, but that they weren't native themselves. This thought struck me as sort of odd, given that they possessed two sets of eyes, a trait that seemed to be nearly universal amongst species of Faye. Then again, we'd found a series of paintings that seemed to indicated that they didn't always have the eyes, that it was something they created for themselves after examining it in other animals. That would have been a rather extreme ritual, involving redesigning the skull and parts of the brain.

If it was something they'd done to themselves it had worked well, but honestly made me wonder what they may have been like without it. At the moment Hermione was examining a set of paintings that dealt with their downfall. The war that had destroyed they're more advanced society. The enemies were never depicted with much detail, other than they were large and shaggy in appearance. The shape was familiar, and the more we looked into it, the more we thought the raptor bears had to be the remnants of their old enemies. They were certainly ferocious enough for it.

Our first look at these cave paintings had been little more than a glance. When you started to really examine them you could see the insane amount of detail involved. I believed that they had to have been painted by more than just one individual. It would have taken years for one person to do all this, but it was more to the shift in style the higher you went that had me convinced. One could argue that of course if you spent years painting, your style would change, become more detailed as time went by, but they didn't so much get better as they simply changed. Different colors had been used in different places, familiar characters that appeared multiple times changed in appearance subtly. I wasn't much of an art aficionado, but even my untrained eye could see the differences.

"Harry, come take a look at this." I sauntered up the narrow path a ways and came to stand behind my wife. She was crouched down, near the floor, and I hunkered to take a look. "See this here?" She pointed out a shaggy beast in one small corner of one painting. The background looked to be some kind of chamber, grey like stone or metal. It was angular as well, to depict more of a room rather than nature. The vague outline of one of the beasts seemed to be lying on a table. A very faint blue could be seen around it like an aura. "And now we go up." She rose into the air and I floated dutifully after her. At the very top of the cavern there was a being depicted glowing blue, a very similar blue to the aura of the last one. "Look at the background." I did, leaning over her shoulder in midair to take a better look. The background was the same as the last, just shown from a different angle. The glowing figure was drawn to be about the same shape and size as the last. We'd been coming and staring at these pictures for several months now and hadn't detected that yet.

"Its like a ritual room. An enhancement ritual. That would explain their ability to gain control over an element. Similar things existed back on Earth, in ancient times anyway. But it was rather... crude, and killed just as often as it succeeded. This is fantastic Hermione." I grinned and kissed her. She didn't seem to mind that at all.

We pulled away, slightly breathless, goofy grins stretching our features. I swear, if I pushed this body to a thousand years or more I'd never get tired of that, or her. I didn't have it in me. "We really ought to get an elder in here soon to look at all this." She nodded absentmindedly and went back to examining the paintings.

"I'm still having trouble following the narrative. I mean, I know time passes the closer you get to the end, but its like its all jumbled and out of order in the middle. Thats one reason it took so long to notice this connection. That the scene continues from the top instead of next to it is messing with me I'm afraid."

I nodded, I had turned around and was examining the opposite wall. "I agree, they follow along one direction for a while before changing again. The only thing they don't seem to do is double back on each other." The series I was looking at was farther down the time line from Hermione's even though it was directly across from her. A charyepchee city, huge and glorious with spiraling towers that somehow shifted with the earth, was stretched out in front of me. I looked, almost expecting the pictures to move. Bombs were in the sky above the city. They appeared similar to the one we'd found buried deep in the ground, but it was hard to tell. The charyepchee's old enemies were known to steal technology and convert it for their own purposes.

The next scene showed the city destroyed, with smoke rising from the wreckage. Two small figures, ones I'd scarcely noticed before, were at the very bottom, as if they had just now crawled out of the city. They were bald, like the Charyepchee, and drawn thin and spindly. Curls of smoke rose off their bodies as if they'd nearly been cooked, and I suppose they had been. One of the figures was pointing, high up and off to the right as if pointing into the sky. I still hadn't figured out how it continued. I frowned a the little pointing finger and followed its direction across the paintings. It couldn't be that easy could it?

I floated up and around near the top again, and sure enough, there were those same two figures, drawn larger with more detail, but with wisps of smoke still coming off them. They were walking through the outskirts of the destroyed city, heading for a nearby jungle. The paintings continued down now. They were in the forest, building huts within the trees, then another, this time of a pair of eggs. The last painting near the bottom showed the figures holding two small children aloft.

I went back to the top of the wall, expecting to see more, but no, the pictures had changed again, seemingly losing their order. Back near the floor I examined the image more closely. One of the small figures was pointing. I followed the direction and sure enough, the story continued, this time with more figures. They gathered around each other, and there was another image, building more tree huts, more children being born. The last image was of a phar'ok, flying over head as a child pointed up toward it. "One image leads to another."

I turned toward Hermione. " Look for clues hiding in the pictures. That's how you can tell where to look next." I showed her what I meant and she went back to her own set of images, trying to follow the story. Sometimes it was obvious, a hand pointing, or a finger. Usually though it was more subtle, an odd angle in the background forming an arrow, or something that was easy to miss like a stick in the background.

Once she knew what to look for, Hermione pieced the paintings together easily enough, within a few minutes she'd connected her set with mine. She huffed and stopped there for the time being. "What a convoluted way to show progression."

I shrugged. "Its not very practical, but its interesting. If the artist in question was trying to preserve and hide knowledge then it's a good idea. Since it only make sense if you follow it along. Otherwise its really disjointed. Would take forever to piece everything together, even I you could lay them all side by side."

Hermione began examining the ward we'd used to cover the entrance into the Stilted Lands. The rocks still blocked the actual opening, but the ward stopped anything from even being interested in the area. Through the stone, we could hear a deep breathing. Something outside was nearby, but didn't seem interested in the passageway itself. There were grunts and angry shuffling from the other side as well.

I refrained from moving the rocks to get a peak and cast a spell instead. The stones glimmered for a moment before becoming transparent. The spell only worked one way, so nothing could see in at us.

A group of the bear raptors were standing in a loose circle. A fire blazed between them, that surprised me, but not overly so. They were barking at each other angrily, several of them had designs painted on their faces in red. There was lots of arguing and pointing. I glanced at Hermione and saw her enraptured. She was studying another culture after all, completely unobserved. I decided to cast a translation spell. I knew it wouldn't pick up much, but it would be better than nothing.

A slight tingling entered the air, and their voices grew in clarity.

"Brazgul blood brother bor ish dead. hazbah demand shinta more caz bethda death." Those words were spoken by one of the larger, and younger beasts. "We are Avarta, caz bor ish death!"

One of the others, an older and largest out of them snarled and pointed at the younger. "Pron ish Master tanz cor." He pointed up toward the sky with three meaty crooked fingers. "shevche moons, ins tanz pass caz ber blood cor death!"

The younger was breathing hard, shaking with barely suppressed rage and I glanced at Hermione. I don't know what the hell they were talking about, but I swear, every other word seemed to be about killing, blood or death. I suppose I shouldn't have been that surprised, given what we'd learned, and experienced of their nature. I looked at the designs drawn across their bodies wondering at those. Maybe the younger wanted the old one's position? Or perhaps it was some kind of adulthood ritual he wanted to perform and it wasn't ready yet. I simply didn't know.

The others gathered around the fire seemed only interested in watching. They growled to one another in softer tones. Everyone of them spoke with a deep, gravel filled voice, but the two yelling at each other took center stage. The younger was pacing now, growling and muttering to himself. The thick cords of muscle could be seen rippling beneath his coat of fur. I could watch his chest muscles tense and flex as he breathed.

Eventually he stopped pacing and turned back to the elder. When he spoke it was still deep and laced with anger, but now it was mostly constrained. "This Avarta will tanz. Pron shevche moons caz ber blood cor death."

The older one nodded once, more like a bow than a head nod, but I got the gist. The younger of the two stalked off at that, angrily wiping the designs from his face and chest, smearing them. The elder seemed to almost relax at this before sitting down before the fire. Instead of using a stick to stir the coals, he reached in with a hand instead and tossed them about, causing the fire to flare up in new life. He barked something at the others and they moved away to give him space. I assumed they returned to their homes, but our little window didn't show much. He sat there for some time, just staring into the fire and muttering to himself.

Hermione and I decided we'd seen enough and dropped the spell, returning the rock to its normal appearance. I double checked the ward and rubbed my eyes, knowing we still had a thousand different things to do today.

"What do you reckon that was all about Harry?" I shrugged and wished the translation spell had worked better.

"I think they were saying something about a manhood ritual, though that's just my guess. They're rather brutal and blood thirsty so it probably entails killing something."

She nodded in thoughtfulness as we turned to exit the narrow cavern. She grinned at me as she took my flesh hand. "Did you catch their actual names?" I had not, and told her as much. I'd never been accused of being particularly detail oriented and I'm not surprised Hermione had noticed something I hadn't

"Avarta, their name for themselves is Avarta. Beyond that it was mostly gibberish to me. Although their conversation did seem rather bloody in nature."

I laughed as we walked back into the cave proper and moved to make our way to the outside. "Seems to me that their entire culture is based on death and blood. Perhaps we'll learn more as time goes by. I'm just glad they're up their and we're down here."

She rolled her eyes at me and leaned against me. "Sure ya are loverboy, you're itching for a fight, you always are." She leaned up and kissed me as we walked, leaving a goofy grin stretching my features. "Come on my big tough warrior, lots more to do today."

I grinned and snapped a crisp salute as we walked out into the sunlight. "Yes ma'am."

A/N:

Another chapter down with more to come. The Azarta, the true name of the raptor bears, just kinda always seem ready for a fight don't they?

I gotta admit guys that this one was one of the harder chapters for me to get through so far, I'm gonna chalk it up to being mostly sleep deprived. Read, enjoy, and drop a review to let me know how you liked it.

Until next time,

Harkon


	15. Growing

I ducked under a blue slash of energy and twisted in midair to avoid a gout of fire. I landed on one foot, twisted, and leapt again, the concussive wave of magic passed harmlessly beneath me. I landed in a crouch and dived sideways. From there I moved into a hand spring and pushed off. My magic thrummed in my veins as I sailed over my would be assailant and landed behind her. A tap on the back of the neck filled with a spark of magic made her crumple, without looking I sidestepped a purple crackling curse and deflected another concussive wave with my metal hand. I sent out a spell of my own, a small bolt of lightning, and dropped another attacker.

A grin split my face as I dived forward. I caught myself with my hands and pushed off, twisting in midair and formed a shield mid movement that sent several curses ricocheting away from me. I sent out two stunners, and dropped two more. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I whirled at the sensation of heat. A small dragon, made of flame, barreled toward me, burning mouth snapping. I conjured a shield of ice, inverted the domed surface and used it as a net to catch the dragon. It hissed and steamed as my ice snuffed it out. That had been a good one.

I leaned backward out of the way of a bolt of lightning and hopped over a severing curse. I sent one, two, three stunners. The first was dodged, the second deflected, and the third was caught square in the face. She dropped with a thud. I turned back toward my last attacker. The dragon summoner. He was breathing hard, sweat matted his ginger hair and a snarl of frustration had marred his face. I raised my hand and waved at him cheekily. That did it.

Bolts of lightning, fireballs, severing curses, they were launched at high speeds and reckless abandon. I stepped forward, leaned to the left and right to avoid most of them, lifted my left leg in just enough time to avoid one more and ignored the last attack, it soared passed my face, missing completely. He conjured a whip of blue fire and I grinned.

With my metal hand I formed a blade of viridian energy, roughly three feet long. The whip snapped and I deflected it with my blade. His hands moved with speed and grace, he twisted and snapped the whip, looking for a hole he wouldn't find. I kept walking forward, barely moving other than to deflect the whip.

As i got closer his movements became faster, more frantic. I grinned, he was scared now and beginning to panic, this is what I was really after, this is what I wanted to beat out of them. I leapt forward, the whip snapped again and I reached out with me metal hand and caught it. It didn't hurt, just a little tingly, and gave the whip a jerk. He sailed toward me, in his panic he'd held on tight instead of letting go. I thrust my blade of energy forward as if to impale him and heard him yelp in fear. At the last possible second he dropped the whip and cast a strong, concentrated shield between his hands, the shield struck my blade with the sound of a gong and he bounced backward. He hit the ground hard a few feet away and knocked the air from his lungs.

He gasped and groaned, my attacker tried in vein to sit up, but I didn't let him, I was too close to let it slide. I flew forward and brought my blade down. He yelled in surprise and fear as I impaled him in the chest. "Poke, you're dead." I jabbed him a few more times, the blade passed through him harmlessly, doing no more damage than the beam of a flashlight would. He lay there, hands covered his face for several more moments before he registered that he was still alive. He slowly lowered his hands and stared at me as I kept impaling him harmlessly over and over. I grinned and laughed at the expression on his face before I reached down with my arm extended and pulled him to his feet.

"Jesus Harry you scared the living shit out of me!"

I laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "That's kinda the point Arthur. Good show by the way. You did well til right there at the end, made some mistakes once the panic really got you." He nodded and looked a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry Harry."

I shook my head and grinned. "Don't be, I've met people with three times your experience that didn't fight half as well. You've got a real knack for it."

"Yeah, bu I don't think I'll ever match you, I"m starting to think i'll never be able to even hit you!"

I laughed. "My wife and I are rare exceptions. I doubt you'll ever meet a magic wielder quite like me mate."

He shook his head in exasperation and mild amusement. "You're like trying to fight smoke and light, or a demon perhaps. You can be really scary when you want to be, ya know that?"

I smirked. "You don't know the half of it, maybe me and Hermione ought to have a duel just to show you. You're getting better every lesson mate, I just happen to use a little… more of myself every time. If you gotta struggle for every inch, you'll get better that much faster. Come on, lets wakeup your classmates."

For the past few weeks I'd been spending my 'downtime' as if I had such a thing, teaching classes on offensive and defensive magic. I had groups of five to ten people at once, and I'd teach them things not included in their virtual Hogwarts education. I made sure to demonstrate these spells on conjured animals first, so they'd have a good idea what would happen if they lost their temper and tried using something on a fellow colonist. The punishment would be rather… severe.

People had been traveling outward now for several weeks, with their ventures came my lessons. Arthur had been out several times himself. None of them ever went far, and I insisted on groups this early on in their explorations. I had a sneaking suspicion that some of them thought that perhaps they weren't on an alien world after all, that this was some sort of hoax. Their first meeting with a bristle back, or a skuttler quickly proved them wrong. I'd received several quiet apologies since then. I didn't mind. I don't blame any of them for the doubt. They fell asleep on Earth, and woke up in a big pen and told it was too dangerous to go out just yet. I suppose it could have been an elaborate hoax, one Hermione and I could have even managed if we'd really wanted to. But the sad truth of the matter was that Earth was dead.

I'd cast my mind and senses out into the void of space several times, and could feel nothing from my home world. The process wasn't easy. The only way I'd been able to find Faye in the first place was from the super charge I'd received from Hogwarts ancient ward stone, that and I'd tapped into one of Earth's few remaining ley lines; those magical veins of power that crisscrossed her surface.

On Faye the task was significantly more difficult. I tapped into my primordial magic, and drew it out of the very air. This world lacked ley lines, ones that I could feel anyway. Instead magic seemed to permeate every bit of it equally, almost like a blanket of the stuff. I'd had to consciously draw it from all around myself. Using that technique I could find Earth, but it was a futile exercise.

My once beautiful homeworld was nothing more than a dead, shriveled rock now. I imagine that natural disasters had drastically increased with the collapse of every ley line, until they created a cascading effect; a chain reaction that escalated until the planet was little more than dead rock.

I tried to picture it in my mind, was it cold and life less? The sun shining on a rock with no more life than the moon? Or perhaps the natural disasters had warped and changed the surface, forming a molten planet of hellish fire? I simply had no way of knowing. Perhaps, over the course of thousands or even millions of years Earth might grow calm, might heal itself in some superficial way, but there would be no life there, none that I could recognize at any rate. I simply didn't know, I had no experience to draw on in such situations. Could a ley line reactivate if it lay dormant long enough? Could magic itself simply spring forth back into the world, much like it had in the first place? Maybe I'd live long enough to find out, but I doubted it, and I didn't really want to. I've lived for tens of thousands of years at this point, stretched out over hundreds and hundreds of lives. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to exist for a million years without a break. I'd go mad...madder than I already was at any rate.

I let the strange thoughts drop away from my mind and set about the task of reviving my fallen students. None of them were seriously injured, I'd made sure that the kid gloves had been firmly in place when the match began, but they were all roughed up fairly well. I let them all gather in a loose line behind me and grinned at them.

"You all did well, you've gotten better with each lesson I've taught you. Remember, you're not truly trying to defeat me. This is an exercise to see how you lot stack up, and you stack just fine. Now, lets head over to the hospital and see about getting you all patched up properly. Might as well give my wife's students something to do."

We headed back toward the gates of the cradle in a loose group. My lessons could become rather... destructive, so I'd made sure to create a nice big clearing for these mock battles. It was less than a five minute jaunt to get back to the colony, but the distance was great enough that we didn't have to worry overly much about damaging the Cradle by accident.

Conversely with my rather unorthodox combat training, Hermione had set up shop as a healer. The building once used to house everyone on Faye when they arrived had quickly been converted into a makeshift hospital. There was plenty of space, and many of the rooms had been gutted to make way for different wings. Hermione was teaching her own groups, at around a dozen each, on ways to magically, and mundanely, heal people. Of course, having someone to practice on was the real ticket, and I made sure she had a fresh crop of patiences to treat.

We neared the gates of our Home and I couldn't help but smile. The walls were tall and strong, I could see a few people that stood at the top. There was a platform now that ran the length of the wall, and the people of the Cradle had formed a sort of guard to keep watch. I didn't know if such a thing was actually necessary, we hadn't been bothered once so far, but it didn't hurt. That and It provided another thing for people to do.

Magic had certainly made people's lives easier. Farming no longer took all day, from sun up to sun down. Harvesting could be accomplished in a few hours, as did tending the crops. The livestock was a similar situation. Our wild population of land crabs was slowly dwindling, but the one's we caught as babies were maturing well, all of them had been mostly healthy so far.

Homes had been built and just about everyone had water and lights, if they wanted them. There were a few hold outs that liked doing things the old fashion way, and I didn't begrudge them that. I was rather old fashioned myself.

I heard the two guards yell at each other and they prepared to open the gates. It didn't take long with magic, before my tired, aching students shuffled inside. We all headed straight for the hospital and I ushered them inside with a grin on my face. My eyes lit up and I followed them inside. and spotted my wife.

Hermione was currently having a lecture about different types of cuts. "So you see, there are fundamental differences between cuts and wounds caused by mundane and magical methods. there's a further distinction between a cut caused simply by magic, and one caused by a curse."

One of her students, a little blonde haired thing barely into her twenties raised a hand. "Mrs. Potter," I saw Hermione roll her eyes at the formal address, "What exactly can a cursed wound do?"

Hermione never missed a beat. "Depends on the curse. I've seen wounds that refuse to close, ones that bleed continuously. There are even effects that can worsen when healing spells are applied. It is very important to completely scan and identify every patient before making treatments."

Another hand stuck up in the air and Hermione pointed. "What if they're too injured, meaning what if there simply isn't enough time to perform all the proper scans?" The dark haired man seemed genuinely interested in an answer. It was a good question really.

"In that case, a stasis spell can be performed on the patient. This does nothing to negate the effects of their injuries, other then to freeze them in their current state. It cannot heal, and will not last forever. I've seen issues with people being in stasis too long. Loss of sensation in their limbs that can grow permanent, reduced mental faculties. So its important to cast the diagnostic spells on them and come up with a strategy to deal with their injuries in a very quick fashion."

Another hand and another question. "What about what was done to us on the trip? We were essentially in stasis for two hundred years."

"The stasis spell is a spell. Your magic interacts with another's, forcing them into that state. Their magic will continue to fight your's the entire time, causing them harm. What my husband and I did, was something rather different. Over the course of a decade, we developed and tested a potion that physically changed how the person's body worked while under its effects. We then developed a counter potion to remove those effects. It took a long time, and Harry has literally lifetimes of knowledge rattling around in that head of his. Unfortunately, that potion was created using magical substances found on Earth. Perhaps something with the same effect could be created here, but Harry and I are new here just like you are. It will take time to figure out what we can do with what grows here. Its one reason you lot don't have a lot of knowledge of potioning. It is an art that is sadly, for now, lost. With time and effort I'm sure it will become useful again, but that will take a lot of time, energy, and research."

"Oh, don't lie to them love, I'm sure you could bang it out in a weekend if you really pushed it." She'd been so intent on teaching that she hadn't heard us enter, and nearly jumped out of her skin. she spun with the reflexes of a warrior and scowled at me.

"Oh look, it the brute now." I held a hand over my heart in mock hurt. She planted both fists on her hips and eyed me with a raised eyebrow. "All done torturing your students for the day husband?"

I grinned and stepped forward, kissing her passionately before answering. "Yes ma'am, they're all yours. I made sure to use lots of different things on them, so you all would have plenty to practice with."

Light laughter echoed around the room as my victims... I mean students, found a place a sit and be looked over. Hermione merely observed. they were all dutifully casting scanning charms before anything else. I watched with a sense of pride as everyone got to work.

muttered words and modified hand movements had splashes of light and color coiling in the air. It didn't take long for the magic to sink in and take effect. I'd avoided casting any actual curses on anyone, we didn't need any accidents this early in the game, and I wasn't nearly as sadistic as some people thought I was. Once everyone was back to full strength we dismissed them for the day, allowing them to go about their normal duties.

I took Hermione in my arms and kissed her as the last of our students made their way out of the makeshift hospital. She giggled against my mouth and leaned into me as the door shut behind the last of them. Suffice to say, the doors stayed locked for some time afterward.

2.

There had been a few of our terrestrial friends, the charyepchee, to visit the Cradle since we'd had colonists, but never in high numbers. We had an open invitation to visit the village whenever we'd like, and both Hermione and I planned on making good on that invitation today. We planned on taking a small group of people we deemed ready to venture forth into the wild with us. We wanted them to get a good look at the village, really immerse themselves in their culture for a while. We were taking volunteers from those that had both learned defense and healing from us personally over the last month. I could tell that once we got back there would be loads more people ready to jump at the chance to learn.

Most of our colonists were pretty young, but there were a few of the older crowd that had desired to make the trip to Faye. Most of them had understood upon arrival that life was going to be different now, that you couldn't rely on old techniques and beliefs in such a different place as our new home. They were some of the first to sign up for healing and combat classes, and most of them would be going with us now. Jean and Arthur had both made the cut, and the two youngsters they'd been minding, good kids that had seemed to adjust well, despite what they'd been through, would be staying with friends while we were gone.

I was happy to see that most everyone had gotten along fine with each other. Hermione and I had both been careful when it came to who would actually be coming to Faye. The pool of people willing to make the journey had been small to begin with. Our home world had fallen so far from what it had once been, we'd met people that coudln't even wrap their minds around the concept of other worlds, much less that it might be possible to travel to them. Those that did come were open minded, and hard working. We couldn't afford to have lazy colonists that refused to pull their own weight once we arrived. That didn't mean we hadn't had grief, that there hadn't been a few arguments, or knock down fights; but they were few and far between, and happened even less once everyone got their own homes built and up and running. the close quarters of our original communal home had bred tension, but that had mostly eased in the mean time.

I'd considered trying to get everyone to fly to the Charyepchee village but ultimately decided against it. it was a fairly long trip by foot, and would take our volunteers much farther than any of them had been before. I wanted them to appreciate our new home, so letting them get an eye full would be a good way to go about it.

I shouldered my worn and battered pack, yawned and stretched. It was early morning by Faye standards and I could see bleary faces and mussed hair in the small crowd before my wife and I. I grinned at her, a good hike would wake them all up. Our ten volunteers stood at the ready, boots and packs in place.

Even through the general sleepy atmosphere at such an early hour, only the faintest hint of color had begun to peak over the Stilted Land as one of the suns had nearly risen into the air, there was an undertone of excitement to go with it. I smiled at them and scratched Violet behind the ear as he hopped up onto my shoulder. The little guy was always ready for an adventure. "Good morning everybody! How are we all doing today?"

I got a pretty loud, "Good morning." out of the group for my efforts and I chuckled. For some reason, anytime I had to speak to a crowd I adopted what Hermione called my, 'camp counselor' voice.

I started to say something along the lines of I can't hear you, lets try that again, but decided that would be too annoying even for me. "Good, I hope you all managed to get some sleep last night, you're going to need the energy today. We plan on being gone for a good while now, not sure how long it will take us to hike to the village with a group, we've never done that before for obvious reasons," I got a few chuckles at that, "But we dont expect to have many problems." I let Hermione take over from there.

"You all have a bit of experience with the local wildlife at this point, but we'll probably encounter creatures you've never seen before, I implore you all to please keep your heads. The likeliness of us being bothered in such a large group isn't high, but there's a good chance we'll be observed. Some animals here are rather shy despite their curiosity, others are much more... bold in their observations. We don't need to see anyone panicking and casting spells just because some of the natives are a bit spooky looking in comparison. Self defense only please."

That got everyone's attention. There were animals we hadn't discussed with the general population yet, like the bristle backs, and of course thousands and thousands that we had never seen ourselves. Hermione and I had encountered new creatures essentially every time we ventured out into the forest, and I suspected that today would be no different.

With those last words of advice, we lead them toward the front gate. The two people on guard duty that day, A man name Hoke, and a young woman called Bridget, opened the gates on our approach and gave out a little wave. Hermione and I waved back. Bridget cupped her hands around her mouth and called out, "Good luck everybody!" The group hollered and thanked her as we made our way out into the forest.

Our walls helped muffle the general sounds of the forest quite a bit, and it sounded like we'd suddenly stepped into a heavily populated zoo. The change was nearly instant. Insects could be heard chirping in the early morning, and many different 'birds' were singing. Our little collection of adventurers were silent, they soaked it all in like a man from the desert handed a gallon of water.

The initial leg of our journey was a straight shot through the forest. The singing trees didn't grow in big thick clumps, they were evenly spread out given the shape of their canopies. Due to the low levels of light that managed to make it to the ground, there wasn't a huge number of plants blocking our path. It was a lot more open down below than many of them had believed it would be. I could here some talking in disappointment, and others in relief.

A tall broad shouldered man by the name of Steve was upset he didn't get to hack through the underbrush as if he were in a jungle. "I always wanted to do that. Me ma had an actual book growing up. I never knew the title, it was too faded by the time I got the read it, but a group of scientists were studying the wild life in a jungle. they always talked about having to hack their way through underbrush. I was hoping I'd get to do some of that today."

I heard someone else laugh good naturally at the comment. I turned my head to look at him as we walked and grinned. "We've explored very little of Faye, not much beyond this forest and swamp really. If we ever discover an actual jungle I'll be sure to invite you along."

You could practically feel the excitement bubbling off him at that. "Thank you Mr. Potter!"

I rolled my eyes at the title. "Seriously compadre, I've had more names than I can count, Harry will do just fine." I saw the hulk of a man blush slightly at that but nodded.

Hermione elbowed me slightly. "Stop being intimidating Harry."

I feigned mock surprise and hurt. "Me? Intimidating? I'm a skinny little stereotypical Brit, just trying to enjoy a good cup of tea." This got most of them laughing and Steve promptly forgot his embarrassment at having actually talked to 'Mr. Potter.' I always found it true, I didn't consider myself very intimidating, perhaps a bit unhinged, but that was all. Some of the stories I'd heard told about me over the years always got me laughing. No matter how crazy my lives had been, something in the rumor mill could always managed to top it. As an example, I've never, 'bench pressed a mountain' nor do I even know how to begin to try.

We continued on for most of the morning with no trouble. The longer we walked the more relaxed everyone became. The singing trees played us a lovely melody as we went, a whistling upbeat hum that put everyone in a good mood.

We stopped for lunch for perhaps an hour and thats when we got our first bit of excitement. I sensed them before they made themselves visible to us. The forest surrounding the Cradle was home to a pack of bristle backs. They often ran with me in wolf form, and we'd come to give each other a mutual level of respect. This was the first time they'd seen humans other than Hermione and I, and I knew they were curious. The animals, like horse sized wolves covered in bristles and possessing a twitching mandible ended maul, were a bit scary to look at. In fact, the first group Hermione and I had encountered had been rather aggressive to us. After some months of studying them, I'd com to the conclusion that what we'd witnessed that day had been a show of dominance more than anything else. They were prideful creatures, and seemed to posses an intelligence above that of the average animal, but there wasn't an evil bone in their bodies.

If you showed them respect, they usually returned to gesture and left you be. Attack them, and you'd be ripped to shreds. I cleared my throat quietly as I ate my sandwich. "I want everyone to remain calm. If our visitors decide to show themselves, don't panic. Their looks can be a tad... unsettling, but they aren't evil creatures. More curious than anything else."

A quite murmuring filled our little rest area at my words and people began looking around, trying to see what I was talking about. A flash of movement could be glimpsed through the trees as the bristle backs utilized their unique method of travel to give us the once over. I still hadn't tried it yet, even though I wanted to. Hermione said she thought it could be done, but that it could possibly result in an extreme form of splinching. I had no desire to try it and accidentally leave a favorite body part behind in one of the invisible folds of magic in the air.

One of them got bold enough to simply approach us from the front. I always found their snouts fascinating. They started off like a wolves. They split in front of the eyes into an upper and lower jaw, and about half way down, they split again, this time into six seperate lengths. when those were closed the almost looked like a normal snout, but they could be all be opened outward at once, revealing multiple circular rows of teeth. As an intimidation factor they could wriggle all of the segments in different directions at once. It made them look more like a face that ended in tentacles or feelers. It was an unsettling effect. The one that approached us was one of them I recognized. He was bigger than the rest, had a patch of white bristles above his left eyes.

This snarky bastard had taken a snap at me once before I put him in his place. I knew I confused him, because sometimes I took the form of a man, and sometimes the form of a wolf, but we'd met enough times now that I suspected he recognized me simply by my magical signature.

The group watched in nervous fascination as I approached him and raised a hand slowly. He walked forward and let my hand trail down his bristled back. True fur hadn't evolved on Faye, not that I'd seen anyway. There were scales, and we'd seen several creatures with very earthlike skin. Feathers had appeared as well, but they weren't quite the same as birds from Earth would have. But instead of hair, bristles had formed. They were like tiny, flexible plates that overlapped. From a distance they resembled scales, but were softer, almost like rubber, and they didn't fit together perfectly. The tips rose up slightly, and they over lapped. If you ran your hand down one way, it felt soft, from the other it was very rough.

He made a chuffing woof sound at me and I returned it, recognizing it vaguely as a sign of friendship. I'd been tempted once upon a time to tame them and use them as work animals, but I felt now they were just a bit too intelligent for that to go over well. Not quite on a level with human or the charyepchee, but just below it. Smarter than dolphins, or so I thought. The other bristle backs relaxed at their leader's behavior and approached us carefully. A few of the older ones merely sat down and observed. I still didn't know much about the animals, but Instar had told me that they didn't hunt things with higher intelligence. I don't know how they could tell, but if you were at least as smart as they were you were off the menu. Unless you pissed them off, then you were fair game.

"Everybody just remain calm, and for the love of Merlin, let's not forget these are extremely intelligent WILD animals. These are not dogs by any means. Let them approach you, not the other way around."

Hermione was currently scratching white eye, my nickname for the leader of this particular group, behind the ears. The big ferocious animal looked rather comical as he lounged and grunted in contentment. I still wanted to ride one, I was just to polite to try now that I'd had a chance to get to know them a little better.

The bristle backs stayed with us for the remainder of our lunch break before trotting back off into the forest when they noticed we were finishing up. "Don't be surprised to catch a glimpse of them from time to time for a while, we're in their territory after all. And please, no panicked blasting curses. It took months before they'd do more than growl and snap at me, I don't want all my good will ruined in a span of thirty seconds."

There was murmured agreement amongst the company of travelers. Most of them had apparently enjoyed the novel experience. Jean grinned at me as she shouldered her pack. "You seem to make friends where ever you go."

Hermione nearly fell over with laughter. She had to stop packing she was laughing so hard. Jean looked at her startled slightly but smiled none the less. "Just wait, Harry collects enemies, its a hobby of his. Friends are happy accidents, but enemies? Those he adores with a passion."

I had to chuckle at that, she certainly wasn't lying. "Its true, its a guilty pleasure of mine. Life would be so boring without someone trying to kill me every five minutes."

Arthur quirked an eyebrow at that. "Even here on an alien world?"

I nodded emphatically. "Oh yes, I have started quite the collection here as well, I just haven't been able to add to it in a while, been busy with you lot and the Cradle." I grumbled like it bothered me that I hadn't had a life or death fight in a while. I felt a tension build in my shoulders as I was reminded of the abomination from the stars. That had been the last enemy I'd made, and I still owed it severely. I cleared my throat in an attempt to shake it off and smiled. "Come on, many miles to cover yet."

A/N: Another chapter down everyone. I'm pretty sure we're drawing closer to the end all the time now, I'd say two thirds of this is finished, but you never know, we'll see where things take us shall we?

I imagine the time skips are about over with now, and with the rainy season... comes sorrow.

Let me know what you think, until next time,

-Harkon


	16. A Walk In The Rain

On the third day of our trip, the rain began. It started as a drizzle, almost a falling mist at first. Within an hour it was steady, and within two, it was a downpour. Hermione and I were hasty in casting the impervious curse over everyone's clothes, we passed out hats and did the same to those as well. We had to stop and teach everyone else the spell quickly. Their clothes may have been dry, and the wide brimmed hats kept it out of their faces, but that didn't stop packs from getting wet.

There was some debate about turning back at that point, we were still a day out from the village, but everyone wanted to keep pressing forward. "Its a good thing we got the canopy enchanted just before we left." Hermione's voice was nearly drowned out by the pounding of the rain, but after two centuries my ears could pick out that sound amongst anything.

"Yeah, we still have a few days before anything weird is supposed to come with it. Instar said the first few days is typically just rain. We'll be at the village before anything odd begins happening."

No one wanted to stop and break in the mess. We took a vote and everyone agreed that we needed to push forward, we'd rest once we got to the village. "What about the return trip?" Hermione's voice came out as a grunt as we climbed a steep bank, the trees thinned slightly here as we came to the top of a hill within the forest.

"Well, we'll wait and see what happens. If the effect is harmful, we can always apparate people back. I'm glad we got the apparation point set up last month." I held a hand over my eyes as I spoke. I tried to block out some of the rain as I looked around. Not a critter in sight. The bristle backs had walked with us for some time now, but I couldn't see a single one. The rains must have driven them back to their dens. Instar said most animals entered a state similar to hibernation during this time of year. The different effects simply couldn't be predicted, and most animals wanted nothing to do with a rain that could cause you to grow extra limbs, or sting you, or turn you polka dotted even. That would have to play havoc on camouflage.

"Alright Harry, we'll cast a vote once we figure out if anything odd occurs. We really should start teaching people how to apparate."

I grinned at her. "Determination, deliberation, destination."

She smirked back. "You mean Destination, determination, and deliberation."

I rolled my eyes and huffed. "That's exactly what I said!"

She grinned and stuck her tongue out at me. "Wrong order love. Those kind of things are important."

I groaned in mock horror. "How they teach it is backward anyway, Your destination is the end goal, so it should go last. Don't argue with me, I invented it after all." That got her to stand stock still in surprise.

"Did you really?" I grinned at her.

"No, but I know the fella who did!" She slapped me on the arm at that and I winced, pretending it hurt.

"You prat, so who did then?"

I looked at her, feigning confusion. "Did what then?"

"Invented apparition!" Her body had went rigid, little hands balled into fists at her sides and she leaned forward, close to my face.

I kissed her deeply then, it melted the half joking irritation I'd caused in her. When we broke apart I answered. "Tenhok Entohep."

The kiss seemed to have dazed her a tad. "W-who?"

I laughed and kissed her again then. "The wizard that invented apparition love. Come on, lets get moving, the children are watching."

She shook her head at that and looked around to see ten sets of eyes watching us, mostly in amusement. She blushed a crimson red and cleared her throat. I just laughed. "Um, yes, lets continue. The faster we get there, the quicker we can get out of this bloody rain."

With that she turned and marched away, my eyes and feet followed quickly behind her. The others followed suit.

2.

Jean walked up beside me some time later. Hermione was off a bit, we'd ended up having to stop for a few minutes. Someone had fallen and twisted an ankle. The spell wasn't complicated, but it took a few minutes to completely get rid of the swelling. You still had to let it rest a bit before using it, otherwise it was apt to puff right back up again.

"You two make a cute couple Harry, Its always good to see young people in love." I quirked an eyebrow at that.

"I don't know if you caught the memo Jean, but everyone here is over two centuries old. Not a one of us young anymore. And if you remember, I was a grown man when your boy over there, "I pointed at Arthur, "was near high to a grass hopper."

She frowned at that. "You know, I never thought of that before. I guess you're closer to my age than I thought."

I couldn't help it. I laughed, hard enough to draw stares from a few people. For a moment of two anyway, most of them had figured out by now that I wasn't the most... normal bloke you could meet.

"I Thought I'd told you, have I never told you, really?" she frowned at that thinking.

"No... you said once when we first met that you were ancient, I assumed you were joking. That not true?"

I smiled, half amused, half sad. "In truth, I couldn't tell you exactly how old I am... if I had to take a guess I'd say... twenty two hundred," her eyes widened, "centuries old."

She'd turned stark white at that and sat down heavily. I kneeled down next to her. I hadn't meant to give the woman such a shock. "Don't worry so much about it okay? There have been great periods of time in the past that I couldn't remember how old I truly was, I think that spared me from some of the madness. I don't remember who I am, not with every life I've lived. But this one, yeah I happen to remember most of it."

"Harry that's... Harry isn't your real name is it? Nothing should live that long, nothing should have to." She looked at me with a face filled with so much pity I had to look away from it.

"Harry isn't my first name, no. My first name was Azrael. And you're right, I've got no right being alive, again, for the ten thousandth time probably, but we all have to learn to roll with the punches. I've made the best of it." I smiled toward Hermione at those words. "And I've been able to help a lot of people. And maybe even save humanity from extinction. I'd never been to an alien planet before, so all this is new to me." I grinned then and helped her to her feet. "Keep it between us okay? Hermione knows, obviously, but nobody else does but you. Some of these kids idolize me enough already, without thinking I'm a god."

She shook her head and muttered, "But you are a god..." she shook her head and spoke clearer then. "Ah, Yes, of course Harry, sorry." I sighed and smiled at her sadly.

"Come on. Should be about time to get moving again, I'll go check on our clumsy patient." I left her next to her son then, half relieved to have told her, and half regretting it. I don't know what possessed me to tell her the truth. It was probably a mistake, but too late now and all that.

I walked up to Hermione and a young man with a scruffy black beard and hair like a chopped mop. "Alright there Gregory?" He was standing again, and had been flexing his ankle and bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, testing the ankle.

"Seems to be good as new captain, your lady friend really knows her way around a healing charm. twisted me ankle once as a boy about as bad, took weeks before the bloody thing got back to half way normal."

I nodded and grinned. "Aye, she's got to, poor thing married my reckless ass. If you haven't noticed," I wriggled my metal fingers at him, "I tend to get injured myself on a rather routine basis."

He snorted at that and grinned. "Right, well I'm done holding everyone up now, and I promise to not trip over anymore tree roots. Let's get to this village and get out of this cursed rain."

"Sounds good to me." I leaned over and kissed Hermione square on the lips. That left her with her own grin. I whistled then, loudly to get everyone's attention. "Alright everybody, time to mount up and head out, my beautiful and talented wife as managed to bandage up the cripple, so lets hop to it."

There was general laughter at this and Gregory had the good sense to blush and take the gentle ribbing with grace and good humor. With that we were off again, clopping our way soggily through the wood, intent on a dry roof over our heads, and a warm meal in our bellies.

3.

The remainder of that day passed in a dreary slog, people laughed and joked with each other, intent on staying in light moods despite the nasty turn of the weather. At least with the impervious charms in place we weren't soaked to the bone. It didn't stop our hands and faces from getting wet, and after hours of marching through the stuff, rain had seeped in underneath our clothes, in the cracks and cuffs, so we ended up wet anyway.

We came to a clearing at nightfall and I stopped everyone in their tracks. "We're gonna want to go around this spot. But we should really wait here to watch what's going to happen." There was general murmurs of inquiry that I ignored. Hermione spied the thin elongated structures that protruded from the ground. Night had fallen, and by my estimate they should be getting up any... second... now...

The first of the rodlings burst forth from the ground. Our merry group of travelers nearly jumped out of their skins at the sight of the magnificent animal. Its long rod, protruding from the back of the head, lighting up blue, along with different patterns of lines and swirls across its body. One of the most beautiful examples of bioluminance I'd ever seen naturally. It didn't take long for the rest of the family to emerge as well. Rodlings of all sizes, ranging in size from twelve to six feet tall emerged from the softening soil. We watched them stretch and shake off the muck and dirt with little effort, their bodies became sleek and clean within minutes of being pounded by the rain. A few of the small rodlings began to chase and play with one another, a soft humming sound coming from them. We watched them all as the adult rodlings watched the youngsters. I always assumed that expression meant amusement in their species, but I suppose it could have just as easily been exasperation.

"Now, we're going to enter the clearing, but I want you all to stay clear of the center, lets stick to the sides. That way we can watch, and don't have to worry about getting stepped on. Everybody understand?" I mostly just got nods, with a few soft grunts of agreement. They were all captivated at the sight. I couldn't really say I blamed them. I could sit and watch them for hours with little risk of bordem.

We made our way into the clearing. A few of the older rodlings noticed us. Two of them turned to watch, but didn't come any closer. They were wary, and I couldn't blame them. Even if they didn't know it, humans could be quite dangerous in their own right. They continued to watch us as we moved around the edge of the clearing, before we stepped back into the forest.

I turned to fix an eye on everyone. "It is one thing to kill to defend yourself, or to feed your family if you need to. Its an entirely different thing to hunt for sport. Humans have single handedly destroyed thousands of species on our own planet, for no other reason than profit and the fun of it. This is a tradition that will not continue on Faye. If anybody here had aspirations of one day lording over this new world and controlling it to humanity's benefit, then please, I ask you to let those ideas go. Nothing good will come of it. We are here to integrate, to become a part of this world, not rule over it. I want us all to live with it, as peacefully as we can. Its true, there's a race of beings on this world that are violent and aggressive, that attacks outsiders at the first sight, but even they have their place, born naturally to this world. They stay in the mountains, the Stilted Lands, and don't come down to bother the rest of us." Hermione and I had both been honest and open with the colonists on our discoveries, including the dangers we'd found, better to be prepared now, and not surprised later.

"All that being said, these giants are gentle, and as long as you give them respect, and distance, you will have no problems with them." My rant ran its course at that point, and we continued on. I'd hoped to have given everyone something to think about.

It took hours more before we'd reached the Charyepchee village. Once we ushered everyone through the ward gate, the rain eased up immensely. I guessed that they might have had a ward in place to deter bad weather. It seemed I was correct. Instead of pouring, the air was merely misty from within the village, enough to keep the plants hydrated and little else. It was probably designed to keep out the... stranger aspects of the rain.

Instar and Svenwhick were both waiting there to greet us. Our little party of adventurers was exhausted and cold with rain, but they were in good spirits. We'd made it, even if it was in near total darkness. Svenwhick had his arms out wide and ushered us forward quickly. "Come in, come in, we've prepared lodging for you all, lets get you all warm and dry."

I nodded to him in thanks and motioned for everyone to follow suit. Several curious sets of eyes were gazing about the village in interest. the pod like trees houses were fascinating, none of them had seen homes like that before. Our lodging for the duration of our stay was a more 'earth' style square building. It had enough room for everyone to sleep and eat comfortable inside, and contained a mud fireplace, something not common in a Charyepchee dwelling.

A round of drying charms and everyone felt better after huddling in front of the fire. Instar had food brought for us. A simple dinner of bread with dried strips of land crab that we all thanked him for. I made sure everyone was on their best behavior and made it a point to them that they needed to be polite. Charyepchee could take a joke as well as anyone, but no one liked to be insulted in their own homes.

It didn't take long before I noticed drooping eyes and yawns and encouraged everyone to get some shut eye. Hermione and I were intent on talking to Svenwhick and Instar a bit, but the rest of them were ready for bed within minutes of eating. Damned If I didn't feel like a father with too many children again.

I made sure everyone was bedded down for the night before heading back out into the mist. Instar and Svenwhick were waiting for Hermione and I. They led us back to Instar's home. I was thankful to sit. My magic thrummed as always, but it didn't stop by muscles from aching, at least, not without consciously thinking about it.

Instar poured us all drinks, a fruity ale the charyepchee were fond of on colder nights. "How was your trip my friend?" Hermione and I drank deeply, letting the mildly alcoholic drink warm our bellies.

I smacked my lips and held back a belch before I began talking. "Not too bad at all. Had one fella twist an ankle on the way, but that was a simple fix. Other than the rain for the last bit of the trek it was peaceful. It seemed to come out of no where, within a matter of minutes it began hammering."

Svenwhick chuckled at that. "Yes, that is always how the rain falls. Little drops for a few moments, before the clouds open up above us and empty themselves for what feels like forever. Its lucky you started when you did, any later and you'd have been caught out in it when its more... peculiar effects began."

Hermione took another sip before speaking. "Any clue what might be in store for us? Any patterns or ways to predict it?"

Instar hummed at her question, but it was Svenwhick that answered. "Not that we are aware of. It has been happening like this for hundreds of years. We don't know of anyway to predict what will happen. We can tell you that the rain develops extra properties within the first week of falling. In many cases within the first three days. I suspect you will see what happens before you start your journey home."

I mulled this information over for a bit while Hermione took over the conversation. "We discovered something recently. In a cavern at the back of Cradle actually. we first stumbled across it before we began to work on the place. I hope you understand that our schedules have been rather hectic lately. If things had been calmer, we would have come to you earlier with this information.

Instar and Svenwhick both leaned forward in interest, listening intently. "Go on, let's here what you've found."

Hermione swallowed another mouthful of fruity ale before continuing. "In the back of the cradle there's a cavern we use to store picked foods and dried meats. Shortly after we began to properly convert it into a colony site, we caused certain rocks to shift and reveal another passageway. We followed it out of pure curiosity and discovered it led to the Stilted Lands. Its odd, the passage doesn't seem nearly as long as it ought to be to reach that far upward, but it does." Instar stiffened slightly at these words but didn't comment. "We blocked off the entrance, but that's not the most curious thing about it. That would be all the cave paintings we discovered."

Both of the Charyepchee were giving them there full attention now, I decided to just keep quiet and let Hermione keep on. "They seem to chronicle the earlier days of your race. We've discovered a possible origin story of your species, along with a history of the war that destroyed your culture."

The charyepchee leaned back in their chairs at this news. "A history you say, painted on the cave walls? Was the order odd? Did they seem disjointed?"

Hermione seemed surprised at this. "In fact they were, we just managed to crack the ordering scheme before we left."

"They aren't numbered are they?" Instar was stroking the side of his head in a thinking pose, his eyes were distant.

"No, it took months for us to figure out that there were clues in the paintings, one essentially points to the next. It made them difficult to go through." She scowled at this and I chuckled a little at her expense.

"The traveling bard..." Both the charyepchee were quiet for a few moments. I could tell Hermione wanted to know who the traveling bard was, but she remained quiet and let them think.

"There was... once a male amongst our species known as the traveling bard. It was rumored that he was immortal, for one reason or another, and that he'd travel between villages, telling the people stories of the old days. He was supposed to have a great prolific memory. It is said he knew the whole world's history, because he had lived through it. I think that bit about living forever is nonsense, but, his traits of an unusually accurate memory... those I believe.

I met him once as a small boy. He told us a tale of the first of our race, how we came to live in the trees, and the hardships that befell us there before we adapted. He's also said to have written down our species' history and belief. We have found two other such caves before. But this one sounds new to us."

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you think he lived so long and made all those paintings?"

Svenwhick started talking now. "I think there's a group of them, or at least an apprentice and a master. I think them secretive, but willing to keep us in the loop about certain things. No one has ever seen his face."

We learned knew things everyday on this planet. A traveling poet that told stories and explained the past? We had similar individuals on Earth, though they were more interested in sensationalizing news to bring in listeners, and coin.

"We would both like to see these painting, if you don't mind."

"Of course, its your history. You're more than welcome to come back with us when we head home. Depending on the rain, we may apparate back instead of walk. especially if it proves harmful."

"Ah, yes, your ability to pop from one place to another." Instar snorted at that. The charyepchee never developed the art of apparation, and have no direct word for it. So they called it popping, in reference to the sound it made as one of us reappeared and then disappeared again.

"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you simply pop here to begin with?" Svenwhick seemed interested in knowing why we desired to hike through miles and miles of forest when we could have been there instantly.

I shrugged. "Some of our colonists had gotten the traveling bug, they've wanted to see more of the surrounding area, a little adventure if you will. None of them personally know how to apparate, its something we still need to teach them, but they wanted to walk so we walked. It was an eye opening experience for them. They got to see a side of Faye they hadn't yet, we ran into a group of rodlings, the look on their faces was worth that alone."

Svenwhick chuckled at that. "Yes, the rodlings are a rather unique species. Far more intelligent than they appear as well." I'd discovered that the translation spell could pick up on certain words we used, like Rodling, and automatically added them to its 'internal dictionary' directly translating them into whatever the charyepchee word for the animals were. It was interesting, and cut way back on the confusion.

"So its decided then, when you return home, no matter which way that happens to be, we will accompany you, and take a good look at these new paintings you've discovered."

"Absolutely. We were mostly taking a stab in the dark as to what they meant. It will be interesting if our interpretations are similar, or vastly different."

Instar had one last thing to add to the conversation. "Harry, Hermione, I must implore one thing, this passage that leads to the Stilted Lands, if our old enemies do truly reside their, I implore you both to keep the passageway sealed at all times, and warded as best you can. You don't want one of them stumbling into your village in the middle of the night."

I nodded gravely at that. "It was one of the first things we did after realizing where it lead. The passage must have been used to go from there to here at some point. The raptor bears," Hermione kicked me under the table," I mean the Avarta seem to gather at the other end. They don't appear to know about the passage, but we've seen them building fires on the other side and have eaves dropped with a nifty spell or two."

Instar sat stock still in surprise. "The Avarta?"

"Thats the name they seem to have for themselves. My translation spells don't work on them completely. We've only seen them twice so far. Nasty fellows. All they ever seem to talk about is killing and blood. I can't really make out more than that, but those are words that they use most often, so those are the ones easiest for the spells to translate."

He sat back in his chair in thought for several moments before speaking again. 'I would like to listen in on one of these conversations with you at some point."

I nodded. "If they don't meet again while you're visiting, I can always pop over and snag you real quick when we catch them at it. It isn't anything we monitor full time, other than to make sure the passage is firmly block, so it may take some time."

He nodded at that, seemingly satisfied.

We chatted for a bit longer after that. Instar and Svenwhick were both interested in the paintings and agreed to see them for themselves once we were ready to head home. The night had grown deep before we finally called it quits and went to our own beds. The ground house that the charyepchee had set up for us was almost funny when we went in. Between the ten members we'd brought with us, half of them seemed to snore. Hermione and I found a dry patch of ground, and applied some cushioning charms. Once we were comfortable, the silencing spells came next. We lay next to each other, her in my arms as we drifted off slowly, enjoying the warmth and familiarity of one another. For the first time in months, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

4.

The world didn't go to hell for almost two more days. For two days we had peace, happiness. Our traveling band of adventurers slept a little late that next morn, but most of them were still up fairly early. The twin suns had just begun their climb into the sky before most of them, Hermione and myself included, were awake. Everyone wanted to get a good look around, and someone had managed to step on me that morning, jostling both of us awake. No one admitted it, but I noticed Gregory had a bit of a guilty look on his face as he was pulling on his boots.

Once I was awake, that was it for the night, I simply couldn't fall back asleep, especially once the sun was up and shining through the windows. I stretched and yawned before pulling Hermione gently to her feet. She leaned against me, nearly staggered in her half asleep state and yawned as well. She leaned against me harder and nearly fell back asleep on the spot. She muttered something to herself about the hippocampus and slouched. I'd had to catch her and plop her down at one of the tables.

"Cooofffee..." Her moan reminded me distinctly of an old movie I'd seen before the Earth went to hell. Something about inferi and a shopping mall. Beyond that my memory refused to reveal. I laughed at her and grabbed at my ever present bag. I reached deep inside and pulled out a sealed glass jar, a square bit of slate and a tea kettle. I sat it all down on the table and proceeded t heat the slate and measure the coffee out of the jar before adding water. Within a few minutes she had a chipped mug of steaming tar black 'coffee' in her hands that she sipped greedily. "Mmm, thanks love." I kissed her and pulled on my boots.

"No problem beautiful." The stuff wasn't true coffee, but a genetic descendent I'd found growing in Jean's village years and years ago. I'd made sure to bring beans from those plants so we'd have our own supply on Faye.

Svenwhick showed up shortly after that. Most of us had managed to get dressed by that point, and Hermione was nursing her third cup of coffee. She was much more awake now, and had managed to get dressed and get her shoes on. I was impressed. She didn't do well with having a long night and an early morning. I could run on a little bit of nothing, but she either needed bed at a decent hour, or a chance to sleep in. I shrugged at the thought and kissed her squarely on the lips. She grinned at me. That seemed to do more to wake her up than the coffee had.

My alien friend stepped all the way in. "Alright you mangy humans, who's hungry?"

I laughed at his description, and most everyone else did too, those that were awake enough to do so at any rate. We followed him out into the mist that surrounded the village during the rainy season and directly toward a huge roaring fire the charyepchee burned in the center of the village for evening meals blazed day and night now. It wouldn't be extinguished until the last of the rain had stopped. It marked a day of celebration, a holiday of sorts for them. They painted their faces and arms with the ash from the dead fire and danced and told stories. I thought it was a delightful idea.

They had smoked meat, from a type of bird on Faye we didn't have a name for yet this morning, and a type of egg soup that tasted suspiciously like spicy potatoes. "The soup seeps into the bones, keeps you warm in the drizzle." Svenwhick explained this between greedy slurps, and I soon joined him. A little hot, but it was delicious, and seemed to do exactly what he described.

We'd brought gifts of course. The charyepchee had helped us quite a bit since we started are colony. Tips on farming some of the plants of Faye, locations for acquiring our own native livestock. Not to mention they'd nursed me back to help on one occasion, let me study they're unique wards. We didn't have much yet, but we brought what we could.

They were fascinated by the carrots. It seemed to amuse several of them that the Earth native vegetable would grow in different shapes on Faye. Along with that we'd brought extra seeds, and several chicken eggs, in stasis and nearly ready to hatch. The children cooed over the baby chicks when they began to pop out of their shells. For the most part the day was passed peacefully. Our people were behaving themselves, most of them were too tired to cause much trouble anyway. They spent the day helping out around the village, observing and learning, recovering their strength from the long trek through Faye wilderness.

Hermione and I both spent time with Instar, Svenwhick, their wives, and the village's elders. We discussed the cave paintings we'd found and most everyone agreed that it sounded like the work of the traveling bard. This supposed bard had been making the rounds for hundreds of years, which lent credit to the idea that he was actually a group of people instead of just one long lived Charyepchee.

"How many villages do your people have Instar?" Hermione was asking questions like usual as she snacked on a few spark pods, hair waving crazily about her head.

He hummed and thought for a few moments before answering. "I'm not sure to be honest. We have regular contact with six or seven others, but none of them very close by, several days walk in fact. I'm surprised you hadn't run across any of the others in your exploration."

There had been times when I'd felt like wards had been near by, but I'd not checked, mostly out of respect. "They're hidden, like your's aren't they?" I asked, just as curious as my wife for once.

He nodded. "Yes indeed. We've been talking about you, you know. Some are rather eager to meet you. Other's are more... cautious, but no one is particularly angry about your arrival. I spoke highly of you, and your abilities, without giving too much away." He smiled. "That would take away some of the fun. We have gatherings near the beginning of the year. That's several months off now, I'm personally inviting you and your village to come join the celebrations. Your contact with the charyepchee has been limited to this one small village, it is time to broaden your horizons some I think."

I nodded, sounded good to me. "It will be nice to view your celebrations. I'm curious as to how they very from what we had on Earth."

He chuckled. "Do people drink in excess and dance in the streets?"

I blinked and laughed. "It seems we aren't so different at all Instar."

He grinned. "No, Harry, I don't believe we are."

The rest of the day passed quickly, with all of us enjoying the communal dinner around the big fire in the village center. We talked and laughed, and played with the children. The charyepchee children were always so fascinated with human hair it made me laugh. the atmosphere was one of peace and happiness. Two different peoples, different species in fact, finding common ground with each other and forming friendships.

We went to bed that night with lightened hearts and smiles on our faces. I drifted off to sleep, for the first time in months relaxed without a worry in the world. If only I'd known what was to come, If only I'd known, the nightmares that the next day would bring.

A/N: There's a bit of foreboding going on there... I've dropped bits and pieces here and there, hints that I hope, won't make a lick of sense until after the fact, one of those things, where if you go back and read it you'll go, "oh, I see, that's what that meant." but we shall see.

I hope you all enjoyed, read and review,

Until next time,

Harkon


	17. Hell on Faye

Hell in Faye

Chapter 17

The day started peaceful and pleasant... How I wish it would have stayed that way. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, death follows me.

We awoke the next morning and had a pleasant breakfast with everyone before our little group divided up and headed in different directions. Arthur and his mother were interested in seeing how the charyepchee built their tree top homes. Steve went with a group of hunters in the hopes of killing something large with many teeth, I wished the man luck with a slap on the back. The others wondered about, playing with the children, listening in on lessons on the charyepchee's history or learning more about how the aliens farmed the land and raised their livestock.

Hermione and I were largely left to our own devices. I didn't mind in the slightest. Any time I could catch a quiet moment with my wife was a good time. Instar and Svenwhick were quizzing us about the cave paintings again.

"So you say there were images of some sort of ritual going on with the Azarta?" Hermione nodded.

"Yes, they clearly showed one of them lying on some sort of table in an angular room. The next scene shows that same figure, but now bathed in fire." She took a drink of water from a canteen and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand before continuing. "We haven't gotten a chance to piece the entire thing together yet, but it looks like it has the time leading up to the war, the conflict itself, and then several years afterward."

Svenwhick scratched the side of his head in thought. "I wonder, there are ruins on the surface of our world, remnants of the long forgotten cities. They were uninhabitable when our people left, too much disease within the air, but I wonder now if some of that hasn't cleared out. Perhaps they would be worth looking into sometime soon."

Instar looked a bit troubled at that idea. "We know not what was used during those days. It has been generations since any of our people have went to look. It may be safer... or it could be just as dangerous."

I wondered briefly if the 'disease in the air' was radiation. I'd discussed the concept with them both at different points in the past. They didn't have a word that translated directly to radiation, that in itself would have been a big clue, but what they described, air that killed you without taste of any noticeable difference, fit the bill. it caused lesions to form on the body, followed by puking and delirium shortly before actual death. That sounded like extreme radiation sickness to me, but it could just as easily be something entirely different.

I piped up with a question of my own then. "Has anyone ever tried clearing it away with magic? To dissipate the sickness?"

Instar shook his head as he took a sip of warming ale. "It is said it can be moved, pushed about so to speak, but will not thin. We could move it to explore the dead cities, but then we would just shift the danger, and create another area where the plants and animals perish. We have never deemed it worth it."

I nodded, I could understand that... but I wondered, what if the 'bad air' was pushed upward instead of just around? Or even forced into a container... perhaps that could work. I sat on the thought. I'd have to consider it before bringing it up again. I reached up and absentmindedly fed Violet a bit of Charyepchee bread. The little purple monkey loved the stuff.

The day passed easily, in a lazy manner really, for hours. It was around Faye's noon that things began to get strange.. and then they became terrible. It started innocently enough. I was walking across the plaza, the open ground in the center of the village, when I felt a drop of rain. This in itself hadn't been strange over the last few days. Any time I'd ventured out of the village I'd have been soaked in less than a minute. But I wasn't outside the village's wards, instead I was in the very center.

I stood right next to the communal fire, it had been lit ever since the rain began to fall and would continue to burn until it was over when I felt it. I thought at first that perhaps it was merely a fluke, a single drop or two getting through shouldn't have been surprising. After all, the ward was designed to let some of the water through, and a few actual drops getting in wouldn't be much of a shock.

I shrugged and continued on my way when I felt another drop, and then another. Before long it was pouring in the village and out. The charyepchee outside at the time were in a bit of a panic, their wards were supposed to stop this. I looked about and squinted, letting my eyes take on mage sight so I could get a better look. What I saw shocked, and honestly scared me.

The ward was collapsing. Where ever a drop of water landed, it burned a hole right through. The entire top of it had dissolved completely already and the sides were quickly eroding. I was soaked in seconds. I looked down at my drenched bag and my eyes widened. The enchantments were failing and fast. I had just enough time to curse loudly before the bag exploded right on my side.

Dozens of items, things now too big to fit within the folded space, flew out in every direction like a grenade. A knife I carried buried itself in my side as I was knocked off my feet from the blast of released magical energy. I was smoking from the force, and dizzy. I grimaced at the handle sticking out of my side. One of my kidney's had been pierced.

Hermione started to rush out to me but I threw up my hand to stop her. She was still carrying her bag. I saw her eyes widened and face pale at the thought before she dropped it, just on the inside of a charyepchee home, before bolting to me. I staggered to my feet as she approached and nearly fell again at the nausea that assaulted me. I felt the knife slide around on my insides, it was causing more damage with every breath I took.

"Harry! What the hell happened?" I grit my teeth and grasped the handle of the knife before yanking it out. I groaned at the pain, just as the blood began pouring. I put a hand over the wound and let Hermione help me to a dry spot.

"The rain, its eating away at any type of enchantment, whether its tied to a object, or the air." I cursed and flooded the wound with magic. My skin sparked green for a moment before I got the reaction under control. Wild magic didn't mix well with enclosed spaces. Within a few moments The pain eased and the wound began to heal. I started on the inside with the kidney and worked my way out, with a little help from Hermione I was left merely tender instead of bleeding out. I stood and looked at Her. "We have to get to the Cradle, Now!"

Without waiting for a reply, I spun on my heels and vanished on the spot.

2.

I appeared in the center of the Cradle in a flash. The ground beneath my feet was muddy, the rain was hammering. Our ward had failed as well. Colonists were running around everywhere. Some were attempting to shore up buildings and defenses. Others looked lost in the panic. I cast a sonorous and addressed everyone as quickly as I could.

"The Rain eats enchantments! Anyone that used magic heavily to hold their homes together, I recommend you return and cast shield charms over your homes! They work differently than wards and enchantments, and should stop the rain from seeping through."

I watched as people at first jumped at the sound of my voice, and then began to run off to do as I told them. It was lucky that we hadn't used conjuration to create the buildings. I had no clue exactly what the rain was doing, but the buildings were constructed with physical materials, and were for the most part held together in a mundane fashion. Some of them would lose a bit of strength, but I don't believe anything would be outright collapsing. I had to get to the fields before the crops were completely destroyed. I took off at a dead run, primordial magic flooded my veins giving my natural body a speed boost as I ran and leapt over a row of houses. I slid in the mud but kept my balance and took off again like a bat out of hell.

I arrived to discover villagers trying in desperation to form shields to protect the crops. I felt a bit of pride at that. I ran up to them, and my voice still enchanted, addressed the group. "Return and protect your homes, I'll take care of the fields!" They looked at me for only a moment before they dropped their over lapping shields and moved off quickly. I thought quickly, my mind whirling on a solution. Something came to mind, it would be messy, but would have to do. With one hand I cast a shield that covered the entire field. A few of the colonists actually stopped to gape at the massive blue shield I'd used to cover our crops. I paid them little mind. With my other hand, I summoned the trailers we'd used to transport them to Faye.

I'd had other Ideas as to what I could use them for, but in reality I'd only need one, so the rest were finding themselves repurposed. With my free hand I manipulated the large metallic squares. They floated in the air over the crops, and with the sound of snapping welds and tearing metal, I ripped them apart. The process wasn't pretty. I ripped them open in such a way that they were still connected along the edges, like a cardboard box that had been broken down. I then ripped everyone of them at the seem along one side, stretching them out to make a long narrow sheet of metal. Hundreds of little bobbles and bits of metal and destroyed, once delicate, instruments and filaments rained down off them. Odds and ends of wiring and components stuck out all along the side that used to be the inside of the trailers. This strained my concentration if not my magic.

With a violent motion I drove them deep into the earth around the borders of the field. I formed a wall of metal surrounding the field on three sides. The plants grew on a slight incline, so the bottom edge I left free. This created a break, the muddy water flowing over the crops was diverted around them to either side. It was ugly and crude, but also effective. The last trailer I'd stripped and stretched was placed over top to form a roof to protect them from the falling rain. The seem wasn't perfect, there were holes and gaps, but I'd managed to stop ninety percent of the rain from getting to them, and that was enough. All I'd needed to do was to stop them from being flooded, and I'd managed that just fine. I let the shield drop and watched as the water rushed around my make shift barrier.

Now I had to worry about the wall. I dashed away, chasing the water and then over taking it before the literal flood slammed into our wall. It was built well, and only had magic added to it to strengthen it further, but it was designed to take force from the outside, not the inside. I stopped, trying to think of something to do to stop it from being toppled over from the inside. The gate was too far to open. We could have done that to redirect the water, but it was simply too far from the crops. I turned and looked at the water, and noticed it had picked up a fair bit of speed by now, nearly rushing toward us. It was raining even harder now. I thought quickly and formed a ramp of dirt, before raising an earthen wall to either side of it. It was a wide ramp, and wouldn't catch it all, but would hopefully get most of it. I used fire to bake the earth, turning it hard in a matter of seconds. I ran back toward to water, and raised the earth wall as I went, raising it with one hand, and hardening it with another. It wouldn't be perfect, and would have to be strengthened over time. I didn't try to use magic directly to harden the earth, I was afraid the rain would wash that away, instead I used magically hot fire to harden it quickly. I ran and built the wall, both hands a blur of magic. I ran outward, widening the gap and funneling the water toward the ramp. I got all the way back to the crop before I stopped.

I looked at my handiwork and sighed at the mess. The crops were protected, the wall would remain in tact, but it was a damned mess. magic truly was insane sometimes. I essentially had a river of magic rain rushing around my crops, hidden in a helter skelter metal box, and then into a strange trough made of dirty, before a ramp pushed it out and over the wall, forming a muddy waterfall on the outside of the wall. It was utterly ridiculous, and would never have worked without magic.

I turned away from the fields and felt my blood run cold. People had started screaming.

3.

I set off at a dead sprint, headed for the center of town when I saw it, or rather them. High up in the air, black figures were falling. Just a few at first could be seen, then a dozen. Within moments the sky was filled with the dark falling shapes. I poured on the speed, pushed my muscles past the point of human endurance and further still. I came in and slid to a stop in the center of town. A crack to my right had me look to see Hermione appear out of thin air, the group we'd taken with us were with her. She glanced around before looking up. Her eyes widened in shock and turned to me.

"That's what I think it is, isn't it?" I nodded and raised my hands into the air as I spoke.

"Those willing to fight, to defend our home to me! We are under attack, I repeat, those with the will to fight, to me! The rest of you, return to your homes, spell your doors shut, and wait. Do not come out under any circumstances!"

A dome of magic rose upward into the air from my hands, Hermione joined me and doubled the massive shield I was putting into the sky. "Layer it love. Magic and mundane. Lets see if we can smear some of the bastards in the sky."

She nodded and I felt the magic in the air shift subtly, Her shield layered into mine taking on a slightly different hue. Honey and viridian power swirled and intertwined as both of us let primordial magic roar and sear our veins. our eyes glowed, hair blew in an invisible wind and power crackled around us. I distantly noted that many villagers had gathered on the fringe of the village center, spells dancing in their hands at the ready.

The first of them impacted with dull thuds and gongs. I noted with satisfaction that they hadn't expected the barrier. Several of them had bounced and been flung out and away, trails of blood following behind them. More slammed into the shield and stuck their, either too injured to move or outright dead.

Dozens of them fell and dozens more, nearly a hundred now had slammed into the shield, and more were coming. But they'd caught on to what we'd done. Many of them slowed themselves, I assumed via magic and landed on the dome on their feet. Their great shaggy forms rippled with power and rage. They began to pound on the barrier. Several hundred of them now, beating and bashing at it. Now they cast magic, gouts of flame and sparks of lightning. What looked like destructive and corrosive spells hammered at it, but no matter what they did, I simply shored it up again. If I could keep them out I would, even if it meant standing here for days. Hermione stood next to me, just as strong and steadfast, unwilling or able to give up. I locked eyes with her for just a moment. "I love you."

She smiled at me, face tensed a little in concentration. "I love you too."

Arthur approached, he hesitated before speaking. He had to nearly shout to be heard from the ripples of crackling energy pouring off of us. "What can we do to help?"

I looked at him and I saw he had to stop himself from taking a step back. I'd never seen myself like this, never had a mirror handy to see how primordial magic might have precisely changed me, but I felt he was having a hard time figuring out what to be more frightened of, the monsters, or myself. I spoke as calmly as I could given the stress of the situation. "Just remain calm, and ready. If we can keep them out, we will. But if not, every hand will help."

He nodded and returned to the group, spreading the word. The boy might make a good leader one day. I looked up, One of the Avarta had torn a hole completely through, and had stuck a hand inside the dome, attempting to widen if further. I cinched the gap shut and heard a distant howl, even over all the other noise, as its hand was severed. The appendage fell quickly and hit the ground with a muddy thwack.

The colonists were staring at it, in horror and fascination. It was a large, clawed hand, covered in fur like bristles. From above a rhythm was building amongst the Avarta. Instead of hundreds of small impacts, They were beginning to strike it at once. They'd strike it with fists or clubs, some other weapon perhaps, then blast it with magic. They were building, the attacks coming faster and harder. sweat beaded on my face at the increased strain. I felt the weight of the dome with each strike, and the crackling energy with each drop of magic they used.

But I wouldn't be defeated, not so quickly as that. I doubled down on my efforts and the shield flared with power. This seemed to do little more than encourage them. It was hard to see the sky now, so many of their dark shapes blocked it from view. this hammering went on for several minutes before it abruptly stopped.

Perhaps they were tiring, maybe they gathered their strength for a larger, more concentrated assault. I peered up at them, trying to discern some intention from their actions, when a spot of sky appeared. The Avarta had jumped back abruptly, and revealed a falling figure, one wreathed in white fire. It happened so fast that even I didn't have time to react. The glowing one slammed into the shield, sword point aimed downward, and punched a hole clean through. The dome cracked and the Avarta clawed ravenously at the edges widening the hole. At the same moment of impact, a lance of pure burning fire had rocketed downward straight at me and Hermione.

I cursed and dived sideways at my wife, pushing her out of the way just a moment before it struck. The kinetic energy of the attack was enough to flash dry to mud and send dirt out in a plume. I spun and contained the blast in a shield before most of it could escape. The attack was so strong it would have leveled the Cradle if I hadn't. It looked like a nuclear bomb going off under a glass dome. I grit my teeth and struggled to contain the blast, the shield expanded and shrunk rapidly as I attempted to control the force. I flung it high into the air, back at our attackers, before I released my hold on the shield. It detonated in midair, and vaporized the closest Avarta outright

Hermione was on her feet again in a flash. Many of the colonists had still been knocked to their back from the initial impact and I roared at them. "On your feet! They are upon us, and care not if you lay or stand!" I returned my attention to the sky and began flinging spells as fast as I could, ripping and tearing swaths of them out of the air. Primordial magic sung in my veins and pulsed through me. I hadn't used it like this in a very long time.

I felt that deeper, wild magic wanting to come out and play, but I held it back. I didn't want the instability of it to hurt a colonist by accident. I glanced at them, many were following our example, flinging spells and conjuring objects skyward, taking out as many as we could before they made landfall. I felt panic well in the back of my head but pushed it down ruthlessly. They weren't ready for something like this, no where near, but nothing could be done for it now. They would learn, or die, and more likely, both of those things would be happening tonight, in high numbers. I just couldn't escape it, no matter where I went, I was drawn into conflict, that or was the cause. I did not cast the first stone. We had both been attacked first, but the Avarta couldn't let such a think lie. And in their position, I doubt I honestly could have either.

The ground thudded as the first of them landed. I did not give them a chance. In an instant blades of viridian fire had encased both my hands and I leapt. I decapitated one, spun and drove a blade through another. I leapt over slashing crimson and impaled a third. I knocked two over with a banisher and sent conjured axes spinning after them. I flung my blades outward, letting them grow and cut down half a dozen more.

At first, between Hermione, me, and the colonists, we kept up, either picking them from the sky or killing them as they landed, bit it didn't take long for sheer numbers to over take that strategy. The Charyepchee's thoughts that this was the remnant of some last tribe proved false; they'd brought an army.

I ducked under one attack just to be struck in the chest by another, blood welled and beaded against my skin but I ignored it. The primordial magic coursing through me stemmed and hampered any injury they attempted to inflict.

Blasts of pure magic leapt from my hands, gouts of green flame in the shape of dragons surged forward to burn others to a crisp, I heard people screaming as the beasts tore into them, saw others turning and fleeing in fright, their will broken. These people trusted in me, believed in my protection, and I was failing them.

That anger, the rage welling up threatened to burst like a drum, that little voice in the back of my head, pleading to be let out. I cast about, looking for their leader, the one cloaked in white flame; and saw him, hovering above. He was merely watching, a general to important to bother getting his hands dirty.

I snarled and sent a curse his way I rarely used. The killing curse was a deadly thing, I rarely possessed the hatred needed to cast it. Most beings that conjured such feelings in me were immune to its particular charms, but perhaps this one wasn't. I continued to fight, as I watched it strike him. A triumphant smirk crossed my face as its flame died and the body plummeted to the ground.

My people were running, losing their nerve. Several fought tooth an nail, Arthur had killed several of the beasts himself, but one arm dangled uselessly at his side. I blasted an Avarta out of the air as it tried to leap on his back and returned to fighting those in front of me.

I'd tried to be peaceful, tried to become one with Faye, to not kill or conquer, but I could stand this no more. The human race had suffered much, most of it by its own hand, but it had finally learned to cast aside such ways, I would not see the last of it left dead in the mud.

With a roar, I let go. Sparks erupted across my skin in viridian waves and my body glowed with energy. The wild magic sung in my veins at this taste of freedom, and I let it have more. I vanished in a bloom of green energy and darted and dashed amongst the combatants. My hands were weapons harder and deadlier than any blade as I vivisected the attacking army. I struck so fast and hard that most died without knowing what happened, their life gone before their bodies hit the ground. A dozen, then two, before I lost count. I could feel Hermione release her own power, and join the mad scramble to save the human race.

We tore through them and they dropped, like insects caught in a cloud of pesticide. The colonists began fighting harder, stopped running, buckled down with a sense of hope coming to them at the sight. Their attackers dropped from the streaks of green and honey that dashed about like living bolts of lightning.

Time had slowed for me, the world passed by as if in a thick clear syrup. Sound meant nothing, distinct noises overlapped one another into a low hum that filled my ears. This power, great and terrible, had its purposes. I could feel them dying, the energies of their bodies left them as I passed over them like a plague. They were not many now, in such a short time, they had been destroyed. A small part of me, silenced, muffled under this ancient strength, felt pity; on what they had brought onto themselves.

As if from no where, materialized from the void of timelessness that surrounded me, a streak of bright white slammed into my side. I rolled, bounced in the mud, leaving steaming dirt behind, before I crashed into a building. The force caused it to blow apart, leaving behind only fragments. I was on my feet in an instant, pain was left behind in this form, and cast my eyes about for the enemy that should have been dead.

There it stood, the great flame, the mind of the Phar'ok; and suspected leader of the Avarta. Another being strong enough to survive the killing curse. Given that I'd removed its head the last time we met, the beast was in remarkable health. The creature of element and flesh before me did appear to be breathing hard though. Perhaps that fated curse took more out of it than it would have liked.

I pivoted and leapt away as razor thin sheets of fire came for me. I landed on my hands and pushed off again, springing away from the attacks as they continued to follow me. My body twisted in mid air and spun, avoiding more attacks. I landed in a crouch and returned fire. Gushing water and freezing ice jumped at my will and attacked. Infusing one's self with the elements could have incredible benefits, but those came with drawbacks.

Where ever the ice touched, the fire dimmed and sizzled, the gouts of water I used kept him steaming and staggered. the thing was speaking to me through a snarl of an expression. I couldn't understand the monster, and frankly didn't care. I ran forward sidestepped around and leapt over spells as they continued to hammer down, even though they were weaker now.

I conjured a blade of viridian ice and leapt at it. My blade struck and drove deep into the creature's chest. It snarled at me punched me square in the jaw. I held on, and dug the blade in deeper. It bucked and squirmed beneath me in vain but I refused to let go. It grinned at me then and I felt a pinch on my side. I looked down without removing my hands from the dagger in its chest, and look to see what happened.

A knife protruded from my side, just above where my own had struck me earlier. From the looks of it, the blade was at least four inches deep. I grabbed it and pulled it out before I spun it around and jabbed that blade in its chest as well. It roared at me at that and I encased its body in water. The fire burned and puttered around as the avarta inside, for that is what it was, an Avarta with pale hairless skin due to the side effects of the ritual to give them flame.

I held it down, held it in place. I was aware of eyes on me, but I dare not look, not yet. Slowly the struggling slowed, then stopped. The grasping hands lost their strength and dexterity, and soon the tremors of the body died away as well. I didn't move for some time still, wanted to be on the safe side. I finally stood up off of him and staggered away before collapsing to my knees. I was dizzy and weak, that had taken a lot out of me. I let the wild magic fade away from me and gasped in pain. My side was now gushing blood and the pain was horrendous.

I got to my feet, and pumped magic into the wound to stop the bleeding. Hermione ran forward and hugged me, she did so mindful of my wounds. I leaned against her, breathing hard. "I hope this sends them a message to leave us the hell alone. But I have my doubts"

"Shhh lover boy, you're going to hurt yourself, you need to get comfor-" She stopped speaking so abruptly I had to turn on the spot and see what she saw. The bright white fire had reignited, and the mutant avarta rose smoothly to its feet.

It spoke then, in English for my benefit. "You cannot kill, what cannot die, my power transcends your own, and now, it is time for your death Interloper."

A/N: Well, that was a little intense. I hope you lot enjoyed. Sometime in the next month I'm going to open a poll as to what I should write next, once this is finished, I plan to take a little time off, work on some original fiction, but I think i'll be back fairly soon, and I wont be going anywhere until this is finished. Promise.

Read, enjoy, and review, until next time,

-Harkon


	18. The Source

I spat a wad of blood from my mouth as I stared over at the beast that refused to die. My side itched and pounded. The wound was closed, but far from healed. I felt my muscles tremor and quake as I stood there. Blood still trickled from the monster's chest wounds, but they had closed some, and weren't oozing as quickly as they should have been. I cast a layer of healing charms on my side. Battlefield healing designed to hold a soldier together until they could be taken to a proper healer. They weren't designed to let someone reenter combat, but I had little choice in the matter.

Hermione stood at my side. Her skin sparked and glowed, then it erupted. Honey-gold light danced across her very being, engulfing and hiding her features in the glow. I grit my teeth, she wasn't going to do this by herself, no matter how tore up I was.

I balled my fists at my sides and yelled. Primordial magic flooded my system. Muscles bulged, energy crackled and my hair stood on end from the built up power. My eyes took on a viridian glow. I could feel the wild magic bubbling beneath the skin. With a push I could access it, but it was rough on the body. The seizures Hermione and I experienced when we first used it proved that. What would happen to my side if I turned it on? Would I be split along the seem as soon as I let the magic fade again? I didn't know if I could take that chance.

Before I could utter a word my wife shot off like a canon. She vanished in a golden bolt of lightning. I didn't have time to curse, didn't have time to think. I ignored the pain in my side, and dashed after her. I matched her speed in an instant. There was little difference in our power, but I'd had ages and ages to use it, I knew all the tricks. The wild magic removed something human from us, or at least suppressed it. Lack of empathy and pain, able to channel massive amount of raw magic, and fighting without thought. We became tanks, unconcerned with everything but the death of the target.

With primordial magic, I held onto my humanity. I could think clearer, and retreat if I had to. My magic might not have been quite as powerful, but it was far more precise. I weaved around the bolt of lighting that was Hermione and flung viridian blades of power at the avarta leader. He ducked and weaved but couldn't avoid them all. He was still slower than he had been, still weaker.

I surrounded Hermione with a reef of swirling, razor sharp ice. I tied the spell to her, letting it feed her power as it also helped protect her. Our magics had been partners for so long, that they would refuse to harm one another. I could have thrown everything I had at her and it would have only tickled. Such closeness had its advantages.

We slammed into the flame elemental at the same time. The blades had distracted it enough to let us coordinate an attack. I hit it high in the chest and face, Hermione struck low. She aimed for the groin and knees. Brutal and efficient.

At the last moment we'd split off, and slammed into it from different directions as well. The avarta had been blasted off its feet in an instant. Its head slammed into the ground as the knee was broken. I'd felt its jaw snap at the force and watched as its head bounced twice before coming to a stop. Quicker than the eye could see, the beast had grabbed us both. Hermione by the arm, and me by a leg. It slammed us together hard enough to rattle bone and flung us in opposite directions.

I slammed into another building, the hospital ironically enough. I tore through two walls before I bounced to a stop. I sat up, the world spun around me and I winced as I breathed. I had broken ribs. Several of them. I staggered to my feet and yelled as I flared my power again, drawing enough out that my veins burned. My side was pounding, but the spells were still holding everything in place. I dashed outside again through the new entrances I'd made. I saw Arthur attempt to attack the monster and just barely pulled him out of the path of a massive gout of flame. His right arm had been caught in the blasted and burned instantly. Third degree burns spread out across his arm in a flash and he screamed. I pulled him to me and caught him.

"Get out of here! Take the other villagers and evacuate the area! We'll find you when its dead." The man was shell shocked and in pain, but he nodded. I let him go and he dashed off, the few remaining colonists around went after him quickly.

I was thrumming with magic, practically vibrating out of my boots. My side pounded harshly, and now the opposite side sent spiking aches through me. At least I hadn't broken the ribs on the same side I was stabbed. My eyes narrowed at the sight of it. It was crippled. A broken knee cap, stab wounds to the chest, and a dislocated jaw. I ran forward, one, two, three steps and leapt at it. Bolts of lightning danced down my arms and pumped it full of electricity, causing the avarta to spasm and shake. I had to roll off it and out of the way as a gout of flame several feet across shot from its body. The heat off that flame had my clothes smoking, even though it had missed.

It kicked me with its good leg as I went to attack again and I went sprawling. The beast sat up and with a wrenching sound, righted its damaged knee. It was on its feet in an instant. It shot bolts of fire, and blades of energy at me. I rolled, and got out of the way of most of them. One struck my arm. The sensation was like being hit with a glowing hot hammer. My arm smoked along the cut, but at least it didn't bleed.

It reached up with one hand and popped its jaw back into place. It grinned at me and began stalking forward again. "I cannot die guardian. This you know already."

I glared at the bastard and spat more blood. "You couldn't have just left us be, could you? We were content to let things go. You attacked first, and have been coming after us ever since. Why not just leave things be?" I glanced around at the carnage. Humans and Avarta both lay in the mud, the rain pounding their bodies. Nearly two dozen colonists, and several hundred avarta. "Is it so important, to kill so many of your own soldiers?"

It scowled at me, a truly terrible sight given its twisted animalistic head. "They are of no consequence. You are an interloper, a demon from the stars and you must be eliminated. The death of a handful of children means nothing!" It yelled louder toward the end and grinned with a mouth full of razor blades. "Our rain destroyed your defenses, you will not find a counter for it easily, not that you will survive this encounter. We have been watching you, demon. You are strong, but we have seen nothing we cannot handle. You are wounded, and without your best tricks, you are nothing."

It clicked in my head now, they controlled the elements. I shouldn't have been surprised they had ways of altering the rain. Was it always them, year after year, that filled it with poisonous effects? Or had they decided to only interfere now, to get to me and mine? I put the thought out of my head as it kept stalking toward me.

It raised both hands upward as if to attack, just as my wife slammed into the back of its head. The bolt of honey colored lightning had twisted in the air and planted both her feet into the back of the things neck, right where it connected to the head.

I conjured a blade as it flew passed and brought the edge against its body as it tore by me. The magically sharpened blade sliced deep into flesh , and only jumped a few times as it struck bone. I grinned wickedly at the energy being and turned to see our handy work.

The blade had slid into its body at the shoulder. As the avarta flew by, it had split it in a crooked manner. The blade had tore through all the ribs on that side of its body, and cut a jagged diagonal line across its middle before cutting into the waist and groin. The blade had finally exited out of the thigh, on the opposite side of where it had entered. It was a gruesome wound. Something similar had killed me once, many life times ago. I did not envy this beast of flame. When it had landed, the body had skid and bounced, organs and gut and viscera had spilled out into the dirt. The blood was black like oil and covered the entire area in a splattered, spinning pattern.

The wild magic left Hermione then and she staggered, nearly falling over. She was covered in bruises and cuts, and I noticed her left arm was dangling, like it was dislocated. I limped over to her and applied a numbing charm over her entire left arm. She sagged in relief. "Pop it back in love? I'm afraid I've got some nerve damage." I nodded solemnly before giving her shoulder a wrenching twist. A single pop later and it was back into the place. She wiggled her fingers and rotated her shoulder experimentally before nodding. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I kissed her quickly and turned my attention back to the mess in the middle of our village. The body was still dead, it hadn't miraculously recovered from this injury, and yet it still gave off magic. That shouldn't have been possible. Upon death, magic left the body nearly instantly. I limped over to it and gave it a good look over. The things tongue hung out of its mouth, eyes were glossy. the wound was grizzly, like if your average Joe had been mauled by a particularly sadistic bear. I frowned as I peered deeper into the wound. I could see a red light, pulsing slightly.

I pulled at the wound and my eyes widened. There wasn't just flesh and bone there. Something like metal strings filled its entire insides. I pulled on the strange filaments and could tell they ran though every bit of it. the blood didn't smell like blood. It had a chemical smell to it, and was greasy to the touch. I reached inside, and found something round and hard deep in the wound, just below where the heart would be. I tried tugging it out, but it was fused with the body. I cut away at the flesh, I had a feeling this was important. I needed to get a good look at whatever was in there.

The pulsing got faster as I peeled away the meat and metal fibers to get a good look. It was a small cylinder, completely covered in runes. I called them runes, but had no clue what they said. They were in an alien language after all. The residing magical signature was coming from this thing. Thousands of tiny metal wires, no bigger than hairs, sprouted from the top and bottom of the cylinder and branched out, burrowing everywhere in the body. The red pulse was speeding up now. For a second I was afraid it was going to blow, but a different idea occurred to me then. As quickly as I could, I cast a tracking charm on the glowing rune covered device and stuffed it back inside. I took two steps back, and the body vanished.

"It works like a portkey, when its too damaged it gets brought back." A feral grin stretched my features. "And now I know where it is."

2.

I sat down heavily once we'd managed to limp back inside. It had taken hours to get things halfway straightened. The bodies of our colonists had been placed under stasis until funeral arrangements could be made. The dead avarta had been burned.

thirty three colonists all told, dead. The rest were shattered, people were openly crying in the rain, just as many lay in the hospital. We'd just managed to get the last of them stable and sleeping before we headed home. It was the dead of night now, almost morning in fact. I sighed and ran my flesh and blood hand through my hair. Hermione was slumped against me, already half asleep from the sheer exhaustion of the day and night. But I doubted I'd be getting any rest that night.

I took a deep breath and winced. My ribs had been mended, but they still ached. My side pinched and itched on the inside. It was nearly healed now, but was tender and sore. My veins still burned from channeling so much primordial magic.

I lay Hermione down on our bed and stood again. I walked the village then. I took in the destruction and devastation. Even with magic, it would take time to repair the damage done, and we'd never get those lost souls back. Several colonists would be receiving limbs of a similar make to my own. They would be whole again, even if part of that whole was made of metal.

I scrubbed at my face and looked up into dreary night sky. Toward the cliff top. I knew it was up there now, that burning monster, the shell of madness. I had a theory as to what it was. I don't believe it to be real. Its a dummy, a homunculus, controlled from a distance. That's how it survived decapitation, and the killing curse. It had no soul to remove, merely a pilot, one from a distance at that.

I couldn't make out the top in the darkness; not truly. There were vague shapes and half an outline, but nothing distinct. They must have been watching us. I wonder for how long? It had taken months for them to attack after the colonists landed. They let us settle in, even grow comfortable, and learn combat magic. That's the part that gets to me, They watched, and even let us train the colonists, and still that didn't interfere until then.

And what did it mean by their rain? Did they create the rainy season, or merely capitalize on it. I simply didn't know. I'd managed a spell to keep the worst of the rain out. It seemed to be holding. It still let plenty through, but now it was more like regular rain instead of the downpour it had been.

I continued my walk. It didn't take me long to check on our crops, what few we had to determine that they would make it. I had managed to dislodge the twisted trailers and put them back where they belonged shortly after getting the new rain net functioning properly. With most of the rain being blocked, I was no longer worried about them drowning, but we would have to do something about sunlight soon. Most of it simply wasn't getting through.

I made a round through the hospital then. Many of the colonists had volunteered to monitor their wounded counterparts, we had enough people trained in basic healing spells that I wasn't overly worried. It still never hurt to check though.

Most everyone was sleeping fine. Limbs had needed to be amputated, but they were clean and pain free for the moment. One glorious thing about being an alien, there was little chance of catching a bug, our bodies were simply designed to differently on a cellular level, so there was little chance of infection if everything was kept clean.

I knew for a fact that one man was regrowing a lung right now, and another was getting a new spleen and liver grown for him. For some reason magic handled organs much better than entire limbs. I wondered idly if I'd figure out why that was.

After making my way all through the occupied rooms of the hospital, I headed home, it was a few hours until day light now. I was tired, but my mind was clearer. Seeing that everyone that had survived the fight were still relatively comfortable and healing had helped. All the deaths still weighed heavily on me though. All the many deaths.

I went and took a shower and changed, emerging from our tiny bathroom just as Hermione had sat up. She took one look at me and frowned in sadness.

"You never even made it to bed did you?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No, I'm afraid I didn't. I couldn't even begin to try to sleep. I went and checked on the farms and our patients. I just... had to make sure one last time. I'm sorry."

She sighed and looked at me before walking over and wrapping me in her arms. "What am I going to do with you Harry? Your saving people thing is going to get you killed one of these days."

I chuckled with little humor at that. "It wouldn't be the first time."

She only held me tighter. I gripped her back like the lifeline she was. I don't know what I'd do without her... wouldn't be pretty though. A spike of anger came over me then as my thoughts turned to those responsible, the damned Avarta. My mind cast out and found the tracking charm attached to my will. It hadn't moved much since its initial return. I assumed the teleportation trick worked something similar to apparation. After its initial jump it had only moved a dozen or so feet once, and now it only occasionally moved, by the feel of it I'd say no more than a few feet in either direction.

I didn't rightly know what this meant. But I still think my first theory was correct. What we had fought was simply a shell, and not the true thing itself.

"I have to go after it."

"Harry..."

"I know, but it needs to be done. Before they get the notion to try this again. We have no real idea of their numbers, other than they appear to be much higher that we previously believed."

"You need to heal first." She squeezed me tighter and I suppressed a wince over my side.

"There's no time, besides, I'm as fine as always. A little tired, but I think I can do this."

She looked up at me with a quirked eyebrow. "Defeat an entire army, by yourself, while you're hurting and bone tire?"

I shrugged and kissed. "Its not the first time I've done this love, not by a long shot. Now, while I'm gone I want you to keep the defenses of this-"

She cut me off then, giving me a hateful glare. "You don't honestly thing I'd let you go alone do you? If that's the case, you're crazier than I thought."

I grinned at her and kissed her again. "Yes, I am, and I won't be able to utilize it to my fullest advantage with you there. I need to know you're safe, I can't do it any other way."

She frowned and stepped backward. "We agreed on this a long time ago Harry, I'm not just going to stand around while you go and fight evil.

"You're a hundred percent correct love. But I don't think I'll be doing much fighting." She quirked an eyebrow at me.

"No? You don't think so? I'm sorry Harry but you've seen how these people are, you don't seriously expect to come to some sort of peace agreement? Even with the thrashing they got, they fought til the last of them lay dead. I don't think it will be any different if you go to them instead."

"I'm honestly not sure what to expect. But I have to go and get a look at least. Now, while its... wounded." I explained my theory, that what had come after us might not have been more than a rather advanced golem with a pilot. She didn't buy it.

"There's no way, you know as well as i do, golems do not work that way, even a homunculus doesn't work that way." Her arms were crossed, a scowl marring her beautiful features.

"Love, different planet, different rules. Who know's what wizards could have accomplished given enough time. You must remember, both the charyepchee and the avarta were once extremely advanced, culturally. They both lost most of their society, but its possible some remnant of the avarta's survived, even if its tucked away and not fully understood."

"I'm not letting you go alone, no way in hell Harry."

I took a deep breath and sighed, suppressing the wince as my side flared in pain.

"What if I promise just to look? I'll set up some scrying mirrors, some listening and viewing charms. If I'm found out, I'll just apparate out. No heroics, no fighting armies single handedly. I promise."

She looked at me hard, trying to see if I was lying. I didn't lie to her, unless it concerned birthday presents. "Just to take a look?"

"I swear, cross my heart and hope... well I won't do anything but scout out the area."

"Sometimes, scouts are the first to die."

"I'm not your average scout."

She snorted at the rebuke and sighed, resting her head on my shoulder. "If you die, I'm resurrecting you so I can yell at you."

"Deal." I wrapped her in a hug and led her back to bed. I tucked her in and kissed her. "I won't be gone long, I'm just getting a look, I promise. I love you, the patients are resting easy, most everyone is home now, catching up on sleep."

She nodded and looked up at me. "Please be careful."

I grinned at her. "Always love." I leaned forward and kissed her again. That last one might have had a drop of magic in it, just enough to get her to sleep.

I Stood and stretched before heading over to a locker. I silenced the space around Hermione before opening it. Inside was a tight suit, and a set of armor. It was worn in and comfortable, well taken care of. I hadn't had need to use it in a long time, but it was in perfect condition. I pulled on the suit, a deep blue color, before donning the armor, sliding the forearm and shin guards into place before putting on the chest and back protection. I pulled up the mask and the hood; leaving nothing visible but my eyes. The suit was layered with silencing charms and chameleon spells. I hoped they would work better than traditionally cast magic. I activated them and went out into the dying night, barely a shimmer in the air.

3.

I touched down in the Stilted Lands with plenty of night to spare. The tracking charm I'd placed on the device buried in its chest cut out a lot of the leg work in so far as tracking it went. It was hotter up here, and the rain didn't fall. The elemental had hinted at the avarta being responsible for the rain, the lack of it up here lead credence to that.

When we'd been here before, Hermione and I had stayed toward the edge, never truly venturing into the mountains, but I found myself half way up one. The trees were thicker here. The strange ones with blue pods on top still dominated the area, but the foliage beneath was much thicker. the singing forest that contained both the cradle and the charyepchee's village was mostly devoid in this place. It gave our home an almost paradise like feel, if you could ignore the carnivorous animals that roamed the area. Up here though, it was more like mountain jungle, much hotter with thicker plant life. I activated additional charms, ones made to block magical signatures, and continued on silently. My eyes shifted slightly, magic allowed me to see in the dark, crisp and clear. the slight blue light that bathed everything only visible to me.

I had no idea what to expect, I didn't know if I'd discover guards, or an empty village. There had been so many of them yesterday in the attack, the fact that we'd lost so few was a miracle. I had to remember how effective wild magic made it to dart about a battlefield. With practice, perhaps I could flip it on and off rapidly. I could dart between enemies that way without as much risk to loosing myself in conflict. The wild was not something for a peaceful man to use. I wasn't peaceful by nature, but dammit I was trying. It wasn't all my fault that fighting and combat seemed to follow me no matter where I went.

I made my way through the jungle as silent as a ghost. the plant life barely stirred at my movements, the leaves merely whispering against one another at my touch. I kept at this for nearly an hour before I spied something farther ahead.

I felt my heart beat increase, and my tiredness ebbed away as I came to the edge of a clearing. The ground here had been cleared and flattened, either via magic or sheer physical strength, I knew not which one was employed. Huts lined one side of the clearing, the other had several canopies that contained what looked like work benches and furnaces. I could see the glow of fire in there, but no actual flames. an avarta exited one hut and prowled around the clearing growling to itself. It made its way over to one of the canopies and seemed to be inspect something . I watched as it turned something with its hand, a length of glowing orange metal I believe, before stalking off again. It growled and grumbled, so I cast a translation spell in the hopes of catching something.

another avarta came out from the far side of the clearing, the edge that was pushed right up against the mountain. whether it had formed like that naturally, or had been carved later I had no idea, but it was so steep as to be a wall. It stalked over to another canopy and began beating and hammering on something. After several minutes of this it gathered something up in a bowl. it glowed orange faintly. The avarta made its way back toward the rock wall, and vanished. In the darkness I could just make out what looked like a cave opening, or perhaps a door given the square uniform shape. I moved closer to the huts. This had to have been one village of many spread across the mountain. There were nearly two dozen tents along one edge, not nearly enough to account for all the avarta that had attacked us. I focused on them and magic allowed me to see that each one contained a single life form. I thought that appropriate, given their general hatred of all things alive. I would have found it difficult to believe that they lived communally.

The huts were covered in animal skins. They'd been dried and cured before layered over top to create a protective shell for the huts. There was an underlying muskiness from the tents. A mixture of avarta and the smell of the animal hides. I kept to the back of the huts and made my way toward the rock wall. I could here some of them grumbling inside as I made my way slowly upward. I cast a translation spell in an attempt to gather some information, but the attempt was mostly fruitless.

My tracking charm had directed me to this village, and was leading me toward that far wall, that uniform opening. I inched forward slowly, my body constantly reminded me that I wasn't close to a hundred percent yet. My side twinged and stung from the stab wound, my ribs ached. I could feel minute tremors up my arms and legs. I pushed the feelings away, to a small corner in the back of my mind and pressed forward. I'd done more in worse shape before, never mind that I'd died on several of those occasions. This had to be done, and it needed to be done now before the enemy regrouped and reorganized. I'd seen it too many times to disregard the possibility of another attack within days.

The way was clear, no avarta guarded the opening, those outside were still within their huts. I darted forward toward the opening and came up short as soon as I found it. It was a door. a square metal door built into the rock wall. Dark blue in color, it was made of some sort of metal. What looked like runes, of a sort I'd never seen, were carved into the door. This could have potentially caused a problem, but within moments I realized the runes were inert, much like the door they were carved into, they were very old, many of them had been scratched or damaged over centuries of disuse, and they held no magical charge within. I crouched and placed a silencing charm on the door before giving it a yank. It opened easily enough, but was extremely heavy and thick. Perhaps someone had forgotten to lock it.

I slipped inside and pulled the door shut behind me. I turned in the near total darkness and took two steps inside, when a blinding light seared my eyes. I jumped back, power crackling across my skin, ready to defend myself, but no attack came. I squinted through the light and dropped my night vision charm. There were lights on the ceiling, glowing white orbs set into the roof of a hallway. I blinked and looked down, tiled floors, of a strange alien make and design, but tiled floors all the same. I was in a hallway, one that would not have looked that out of place in a high tech hospital. It must have been a remnant of their lost culture, a place that had survived the war. The tracking charm pinged in my head. I was close now, so very close.

I stayed low and hoped my spells would hold against the avarta's magic eyes. Every thirty feet or so, there was a door. Each one had a small round window set high in the center. The few I looked into seemed dark, a couple contained strange panels with flashing lights, mostly in the yellow and red, but a couple green. I came to the end of the hallway and took a left, still no sign of other avarta.

I moved quickly down the hall. I stopped peering into every door, the vast majority seemed to contain the same kind of things, surrounded in darkness. I was close now, it wouldn't be long. I reached the end of the hallway and it branched again. I looked left and right to see if there were any patrols. I was shocked at the lack of security, especially given their war like nature. My charm directed me to go right this time. I obeyed and made my way past three more identical doors before I found what I was looking for. Just like all the others, was a plain non descript door, the only difference was that this window, had a light coming from inside. I approached and peered inside, but whatever was casting the light was out of my line of sight. I examined the door and chuckled.

These doors had no knobs, I don't know why I would expect them to. Instead, in the very center, was a flat panel with a notch inside. I slid my fingers into the notch and tugged at it for a moment before I got it to lift upward like a lever. The door hissed and came forward before sliding sideways on an unseen track. I cast one last look around, before I walked inside the glowing amber-green light.

A/N:

Little bit of a cliff hanger here, but I thought this was a good stopping point. Let me know what you all think, read, review, and enjoy.

Until next time,

-Harkon


	19. Discoveries

I honestly don't know what I expected when I entered the small room, but this wasn't it. There were several dozen banks and panels of what looked like computer equipment. Not like anything made on Earth, but all the same they were computers. Several panels were dark, but many weren't. Instead of a screen, or hologram, they appeared to be made out of a thin film of a clear, jelly like substance. I walked up to one and pressed on it and found that it had give. Instead of keyboards, there were flat blank plains. If you touched one a corresponding dot of light would appear on the jelly screen above. Hundreds of lights of varying colors blinked and danced everywhere. Some of them were set in rows, others in spiral patterns. I made sure the door behind me was closed.

The far side of the room, that had been out of sight of the window, was filled with two suspended tubs, made of a similar jelly like substance. One glowed amber, the other green. I ignored the tubes, and the figures floating inside them, for now, and continued to look over the 'computers.' Several more traditional styled buttons were scattered around the strange input device. I pressed one and watched as the flat smooth plain lit up a different color. Touching it now caused a character to appear in something akin to a text box upon the glowing sheet of spongy fluid. I shook my head in amazement at this strange marriage of mundane and magical technology. I cast a charm over the set up in hopes of it revealing something useful to me.

The charm in question was designed to scan unknown devices and relay to the caster how they worked. It usually didn't work on more complicated things like engines or computers, hadn't back on Earth anyway, but I didn't think it would hurt to try. I snorted at the data that was spat out at me. The charm would yield results... but it would take seventeen years for the spell to fully inspect and translate data. As curious as I was, I didn't think I could hang around for quite that long.

I turned my attention back to the two tubes on the far side of the room. I approached them slowly, and tried to soak in any details I could. The tubes were made out of a similar material as the screens. It wasn't a solid, or a liquid precisely, but somewhere in the middle. I reached out and touched it, it had a texture similar to jello, it just wouldn't allow my hand to push through. No glass. The amber colored tube held a rather morbid sight. Floating within the center was the avarta my wife and I had just killed the previous night. Its body was in ruin, deep cuts still riddled it, and its wounds were open and exposed. Something was swimming within the tube with the beast and I took a wary step backward at the sight.

They looked like slugs, or leeches almost. They had a slight bioluminance pattern across their body in a cool blue, and both ends had a round glowing spot, like an opening. They were swimming in the sludge, and indeed crawling in and out of the monsters open wounds as they went. I watched as one slug worked its way over a superficial wound, leaving clear skin behind. They were healing it, or repairing it at least.

it was an... interesting bit of technology, even if a little stomach churning. Humans had shied away from organic technology in the past, sticking mostly to metal and plastic, circuit boards and processors. These things appeared to be some sort of grown machines. I couldn't tell for sure, obviously there was very little I could tell for sure, but that was my best guess. At the rate they healed, the body would probably be stuck in that tube for quite some time.

It hit me then, why they'd waited so long to attack us. Yes, I believed they wanted to wait for the rain, so they could influence it somehow and gain the advantage, but it must have taken time for those little healing slugs to fix a decapitation. They had waited for their leader to be whole again. I let the thing be for now and turned my attention to the other tube.

The being floating within it was much smaller, and entirely naked. The body appeared to be shriveled, dried up almost. Dozen of the slugs covered its body, making constant tracks across the surface of the beings rough, hairless skin. One of them came out of its open mouth and squirmed out into the fluid. That one in particular had lost much of its glow. It swam around in the gunk for a few moment, and seemed to absorb something from it. It glow gradually returned, and I watched as it swam back to the figure and went back down its throat.

This was it, this was the... pilot for lack of a better word. I leaned in close for a better look. The body was ancient and frail. wrinkled from head to toe, and lacking in any bristles. There seemed to be no fat on the body at all. alien bones were visible through the skin and pushed out at strange and odd angles. It didn't seem to be breathing, but perhaps it didn't need to within its chamber. I looked behind the creatures head, and saw what looked like a metal device buried in the base of its skull, something similar to what the homunculus had within its chest. I wish I knew how to activate the panels, knew how to use them. They were clearly there to control these two pod like constructs, but bugger all if I had any clue how it worked.

I was about to turn, and return to them anyway, when the old wrinkled things eyes snapped open. They were milky white, as blind as they could be. The body shuddered for a moment, before the head snapped up and started tracking me. blind or not, it knew I was there. Slowly, as if the motion hurt it, its second set of eyes, just above the more mundane variety, opened to cracks.

The milky eyes closed as the magic eyes opened. It stared at me, hatred clear on its face. It moved its head and looked at the organic construct floating in the pod next to it. The thing wasn't in any shape to take control. I doubt it could have moved even if it tried. The lips on the ancient thing peeled back in a snarl and I grinned at it.

"Hello you old fuck." I wasn't sure how it had done it, but based off our previous... interactions, I knew it could understand me. "I found you. So this is the truth of a god is it? This is your real form?" I laughed. "You are a child to me, do you know that? A petulant child throwing a tantrum. I came to this world, we came to this world, to become a part of it. Not to rule, or conquer, believe me, I could If I wanted to, and I don't believe the act would even be that difficult. No, we came here to blend in, to find our place on this strange and beautiful planet. We wished for peace. But you couldn't let it be." The wrinkled thing in the tube bared its teeth at me, brow furrowed in a silent snarl.

"I bet this is the only thing keeping you alive isn't it? Some god you've turned out to be." I shook my head and sighed. I hefted my knife from hand to hand as I eyed it. "Children these days are so petulant. So idiotic. I'm going to put you out of your misery now. But first, I'm going to dig around in your head. Once I figure out your language, I'm going to destroy this facility, and deliver a warning to your people. If they leave us alone, they will be left alone. This will be their only warning. If they attack again, It will be their doom. I will ensure it."

My eyes turned hard and I leaned in, looking into those eyes built for seeing magic. I'd never used legimancy on a avarta before, wasn't even sure it would work, but here went everything. I leaned in, and dived into its eyes.

2.

I was met with a klideoscope of color, and the smell of blood. anger seemed to define this creature, but it was intelligent, so I could see its thoughts. A life time flashed before me. Harsh beatings as a cub, mating rituals at puberty that nearly killed one participant or the other, a violent rise in the ranks of the army, before earning the right to bend an element. Choosing the life flame. marching against the charyepchee. War, disease released in the air, and the bombs that ruined it all.

I saw as this thing returned to this facility, and gathered the few members of its race that it could find. Watched as they fought amongst each other as to who would be the leaders, and saw as they split off into different groups, scattered across two mountains. I saw it grow old, and even more hateful. It didn't wan't to die, to grow old and whither away.

This beast was responsible for so much death. It had survived its death by entering this healing pod and never leaving. It was using tech even older than itself, stuff that it didn't understand, or had forgotten about, to keep functioning. It had forgotten its old body, its old life, until I came around. I watched through its eyes as it spied our ship and commanded the phar'ok, in reality a strange organic ship used for war, to capture us. I saw our narrow escape.

Later when I beheaded it, it remembered its old body and life, forced back into it for the first time in centuries. Without the husk, it would cease to be, even if it lived exclusively within its humonculus. I learned how it knew english. Apparently humans had been to Faye once before, long ago.

I remember from a past life, before Earth burned, that humanity had reached out to colonize the stars. This must have been one of the planets deemed suitable for colonization. Humans had landed here, and been promptly captured and tortured by the avarta. Their knowledge pulled from their minds slowly over the course of a decade before being allowed to finally die. humanity had ruined itself shortly after their departure. All the data the avarta had managed to get was still within the system. And this beast had dug it out when it first saw our ship. Some ancient flicker in the back of its head had reminded it of a history lesson from its youth.

I could feel myself laugh as I delved deeper and took a hard look at the avarta's language. Its nearly impossible to learn a language just by pulling it out of someone's head. Technically the information is swimming around in there, but its difficult to understand without the context to go with it. I didn't have the time to sift through years of the thing's childhood, and had no desire to. I was looking for a few symbols, a few phrases, just enough to get the computer to respond to me properly. I finally found what I was looking for and ripping the information free. I needed nothing more, so I left the beast's mind, not caring in the slightest with how rough I was being.

The world swam back into focus around me and I watched as the beast shuddered before me, twitching in pain. It snapped and snarled. The thing tried to lean forward to get at me, but could barely move at this point. Its species was relatively long lived, but it should have been dust in a grave centuries ago. To leave its pod was death. I needed to move faster now, I'd spent far too long here anyway, and accomplished for more than I thought I would. I never expected to find the pilot in such a fragile state. I'd have left already if It hadn't been for that. But at this point I was pressing my luck, and needed to leave before one of its keepers came to check on it.

I stepped forward and eyed it one final time. "I'm going to kill you now, and I"m going to destroy this lab, so nothing like you is ever kept here again."

It snarled at me silently but there was nothing it could do. I walked back over to the alien computer and slid my finger around before lighting up several runes. There was a hiss as the healing liquid in the homunculus's pod began to drain. If they could hook another of their kind to this thing it could prove a dangerous weapon. I doubt they had to ability to grow another. I had to admit, the avarta's lost technology was amazing. Humans had delved into the land of circuits, metal, and engines. After a point, the avarta's technology had veered sharply toward organics. They'd began to grow their tech. from war machines like the phar'ox, to these advanced homunculus that could act as powered up soldiers. This healing tank was another example. Those eel like creatures were grown by them from scratch, with the sole purpose of repairing and healing injuries.

I shook my head in exasperation and sadness. How could such an advanced race, one capable of such marvels, allow their baser instincts to rule over them so completely? They could have went so far, done so much good. But now they were living in mud huts, this one functioning relic used only for war and the greed on one member that should have died long ago.

I stopped as a thought struck me.. I suppose humans weren't that different after all. We'd been similar, perhaps not as blood thirsty, but we were heading in that direction. We just managed to end the world first. Faye had luckily enough survived its own planetary war.

The healing fluid had completely drained away, the healing slugs lay squirming in the bottom, dead or dying. There was not actual tube, the 'fluid' simply had rigidity to it while it was in use. I reached in and pulled the homunculus out. The wounds were still fresh and I pried its chest back on, the tenuous connections holding it together snapped easily enough. I dug in and found the metal connector, grasping it with both hands. I squeezed it tight, and with a grunt yanked it free.

The old one still floating in the other column twitched and twisted violently at that it reached out with twisted hands, grasping for me. I looked it in the eye as I crushed the quasi-metal device. I proceeded to burn the husk to a crisp, never taking my eyes off the parasitic pilot. It spasmed again and I could see drops of blood form at the corner of its eyes and noses. The healing slugs went into overdrive. I watched, fascinated as they worked quickly to remove the metal instrument from the back of its head, severing the connection that no longer remained.

The old thing fell still then and stopped seizing. the slugs surrounded it, entered its mouth, nose and ears and covered its body. The fluid began to pulse, slowly and rythmically before it flashed brightly for a moment. The beast's body tensed all over. This happened twice more before it began to stir weakly again.

Damn, I'd managed to kill it and those little bastards had brought it back. I walked back over to the computer console and flipped a few more runes, attempting to drain the fluid from its tube as well.

I was met with a beeping warning. I frowned, some sort of fail safe. I reached a hand back, ready to shove a fist through the panel and gut the machine, when the door was thrown open wide.

3.

Two avarta stood there as if in shock. I wasn't going to give them a chance to interfere. I plunged my metal hand into the console, and cast a blasting curse for good measure. The lights on the panel all flashed red for an instant before going dark. The tube of rigid fluid flashed and lost its glow before rapidly falling away.

The smaller of the avarta darted forward and caught the frail wrinkled thing just as it fell, before it could crash into the ground. I watched as it hurried out of the room but I knew it was too late, the thing was dead the instant the fluid stopped working its magic. I pulled my hand from the console and turned to face the remaining avarta. It stared at me, a look of puzzlement buried beneath its mask of hatred. I tensed and let primordial power flood my system. My muscles bulged, reflexes heightened and energy thrummed through me. It tensed, but didn't attack immediately.

It opened its mouth and I cast the translation spell as it spoke, knowing it would work properly now. "You have killed the Oldfather." It took a step or two forward and narrowed its eyes but I didn't back down.

I spoke then, and watched as its eyes lit up with surprise. "If we had been left alone, I would have left you alone. My race if few now, and he led an attack that killed many."

the beast's lips curled back to reveal sharp white teeth. "My kind does not suffer the presence of lesser beings. Our blood sings for their death. You killed many of our own, less than a year ago now."

"We were attacked first! I attempted to speak to them, to stop them. We had no need to fight, but I will always defend myself, and what is mine. I grew tired of defending. With your last attack, I decided to end it, before another started."

It growled low in its chest and threw its head back, a sound like gravel in a cement mixer filled the room and i realized it was laughing. "My kind will not stop until the last of us are dead. We do not... retreat. Lesser beasts must be put in their place, must be ended." It lunged forward and threw a punch at me, I caught it with my hand and realized that my hand met knuckles instead of claws. It pushed against me for a moment, and i gave no quarter, before it stepped back away from me again. "But perhaps... your race, is not lesser than mine."

I watched it warily as it gathered its thoughts. The ever present hatred shining in its eyes, but not quite as strong as it was before. "The Oldfather was touted by my kind as a god, a relic of the old days, and had outlived his usefulness, long ago. He continued to rule, to concern himself with the worms that lived beneath us, using pitiful tactics, and pettiness. I must... thank you, for taking care of the problem."

The word sounded strange even through the translation spell, and i realized it was archaic, something that had long since left their normal vocabulary.

"What happens now?" The question left my lips before I had proper time to think about it. I could feel the wild magic under my skin, itching, wanting revenge against these creatures. As far as that part of me was concerned, they were nothing but monsters, things to be destroyed. But I pushed it back, the more logical part of myself warring with it before putting it in its place.

"Now?" It shrugged its massive shoulders. "Now there must be a choosing. Our clans will gather, with the Oldfather dead, a new leader of our people must be chosen. It has not been performed in centuries, not since the Oldfather found us fighting amongst each other long ago. The relic seized control from us. Did not adhere to our ways, but he was strong, so he was leader."

I suddenly wished I'd spent more time in the old bastard's head before killing him. There was so much culture here that I was never going to be able to understand. "Will your kind attack again? I will give you no quarter on a future attack. I came today, to see what I could find. And got more than I bargained for. I knew not about the Oldfather. But I saw a threat, and took care of it."

The beast nodded, in understanding. "He had no honor, was conniving, plotted and planned, he did not appreciate the pure truth that comes in combat, the wonder of dying by another's hand while on your feet. A coward, a life thief, dying and returning, time and again. I am warmed that he is gone."

The beast looked at me in thought. I came to believe that hatred of others was built into their very nature, whether it was something they'd done to themselves long ago or not, I could not say, but it was deeply ingrained now. But this one, it had shown more intelligence and restraint than any other I'd seen so far.

"There will be a choosing, in nine days time. Our new leader will decided how we go forward. The war with your people was a stupid thing, brought on by the blood lust of the young. I have seen your power, and wish to test myself against it, but not at the cost of all the bloodlines. I will engage in the trials, to be put forward as a leader. If I am selected, then I will decree the final outcome." It grinned at me then, like a shark. "If I win, I want a fight, between us. If you are victorious, and my husk lays cooling in the dirt, then so be it. But I want that fight, my blood sings for it. Give me this, and my people will rule Stilted Lands, and yours can rule below."

I decided not to correct him, that I had no desire to rule. I nodded in acceptance. "I can give you what you request." It nodded at me, a show of respect, and then stood aside from the doors.

"Go now in... peace. Nine days time, demon. Then the real... test will begin."

I walked past him, my eye never leaving his, and exited the room.

4.

"You were supposed to just be looking around Harry." I was sitting in a chair in our room. My wife was nursing a cup of coffee, hair tussled and sheets pooled around her hips. I sighed, tired and ready for sleep for the first time in what felt like days. I reached down and began to undo the buckles on my boots.

"That was my intention love, I snuck straight in, avoided the avarta with no issues, and discovered where they kept the homunculus, but it was just too good of an opportunity to pass us. Its pilot looked like he was almost as old as me, if I'd lived one life instead of many. I was discovered until the last moment, and even then, it ended peacefully."

She snorted at that and rolled her eyes. Hermione took a drink of her coffee before speaking again. "Peacefully? That creature demanded a fight to the death with you before it let you leave."

I shrugged, I wasn't that worried about it, especially given the fact that I had time to rest and prepare. I could handle the fight, if it... he won. That was the biggest given now, if he won whatever contest they would hold.

"Is that the part you're worried about? I think I can handle him, ye of little faith." I grinned at her, showing there was no heat in my words.

"Of course you can handle the fight, that thing... he is an idiot if he thinks he stands even the slightest chance against you, but what about afterward? If you kill him, they'll just select another leader, and we'll be back to square one. What if He's not selected at all? Dies five minutes in and doesn't come out on top? Then one of the others will be in charge. From what we've seen, that single avarta was the most restrained member of his race, and he had to get a fight to the death out of you to let you leave."

I thought for a moment, would his people honor the agreement we'd made? Would some stupid young blood from one of their clans decide he'd need to prove himself and attack us anyway. I ran through the options in my head. I could rig the contest, make sure that one particular avarta came out on top. "I could rig it, make sure the right one wins. It won't be for nine more days, I'm sure we can come up with a plan by then."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "And if we're caught? I met if we mess with an tradition they've been performing for centuries it would be all out war irregardless of what you two 'agreed' on."

She, like usual, had a point. Perhaps it wasn't really worth the risk. "A preemptive strike could work. Wait til they're all together for these trials and kill them all their while they're together and unaware."

"What if not all of them show? What if its just the participants and a selection of observers? Wouldn't do us much good to only snag a handful of them. That would probably make them angrier than usual, if such a thing is possible."

I sighed and rubbed at me face as I finished slipping off my armor. I remembered the fight from the previous day and my side ached in sympathy. That was going to be a sore for a bit longer. "Look, Mione, we don't have many other options available to us. If we try to fight a war the traditional way, we'll lose. Even if you and I survive. Even if we kill every one of them, would it be worth it at the cost of the colonists? We are few, very few. We've got just enough people to hold a stable gene pool at this rate. I'd rather not have mutant babies running around in a few generations due to imbreeding. Things like that happened all over Earth in isolated pockets. We need everybody healthy as it is. This was the only chance I saw to end things halfway peacefully. If single combat works, then it works."

She slumped, partly defeated and took another swig of coffee. "You're lucky I'm still half asleep. If I was wide awake I'm sure I could tear your argument to shreds." I chuckled at that and sat down next to her. I put my arm around her shoulders and she leaned into me. I kissed her on top of the head. and rest mine there.

"I was shocked things turned out the way they did. The only reason I got the leeway I did was because they've come to see us as something like equals. They do not war with equals, to prevent mutual destruction. They'll fight lesser races, for sports, or greater races for glory, but they leave equals alone. Its a rather twisted kind of honor, the sort that would have fit in perfectly with pureblood society back in England in your day."

"My day was your day too love." I laughed at that.

"All days were my day beautiful." I stole a drink of her coffee and sighed. "As of right now, I say we let things ride as they will. If anything backfires, if they don't go the way we need them too... well, I'll just go kill so many of them they won't be able to come after us. I'm not a fan of genocide, but I will to protect you and the scraps of humanity that are left. Let the few survivors tell their grandchildren ghosts stories of the monsters that lurk in the lower lands. At least we'll be left in peace then."

She looked at me and placed her hands on my face before kissing me. "You are not a monster."

I smiled at her sadly. "Not to you beautiful, not to you."

5.

It had taken me some time to realize the rain had stopped. For the first time in what I was told was centuries, it wasn't raining constantly during the rainy season. Oh it still drizzled, was still overcast outside, the magic in the air giving the clouds a strange look, like oil spilled in water, but it wasn't pouring. And the rain that fell was normal. I remembered during the fighting, how the Oldfather took credit for the strange rain. Given the avarta's unique control over the elements, I hadn't doubted his word. I was just surprised that it had stopped with his death. Was it tied to his life? Or had the avarta stopped it, as a show of 'good faith?' The notion of soaking their enemies with such a petty annoyance didn't set with what I knew of their philosophy, so it was possible that with his death they had ceased the practice.

I managed to catch a few hours of sleep that morning, but still forced myself out of bed relatively early. I needed to speak to the colonists, and wanted to check on the survivors. Hermione and I had both headed for the hospital first. To say our healers were rookies was an understatement, but they'd had Hermione as a teacher, and she was always the best at anything she did. We came in to find our patients mostly awake and recovering. None of their wounds could be considered cursed, done with magic yes, but there didn't appear to be lingering side effects. Those that had lost limbs would be getting fitted with replacements within the next few days. metal limbs were all the rage these days, I was being a trend setter without even meaning to.

Our people were nervous, so I made the announcement in the hospital first, in an attempt to relieve that. I went from room to room for those that were still bed bound, and gathered the others that were less injured. I'd told several already at this point, but this was the first big group I was announcing it too. Tired and wary faces stared up at me as I addressed the handful of people still hospital bound, but mobile enough to move about.

"I went late last night into the Stilted Lands, to track down the bastard in charge." There was silence as I spoke, everyone was waiting with bated breath. "Those of you that saw the injuries Hermione and I inflicted on him should have noticed that he had no right to be alive, but I'd cut his head off on a previous encounter, and didn't want to take any chances. I found him, and you know what? He was this old shriveled thing. The creature that was ablaze yesterday was not his true body, just something he could take control of to cause havoc. I destroyed both of his bodies."

There were murmurs of agreement at that, and one of the even let out a whoop at me declaration. I smiled at them all. "Yes, he's gone, and the avarta, the one's that attacked us yesterday, are now preparing to select a new leader. I spoke to one of the candidates, and have brokered peace of a sorts." Now the murmurs weren't so quiet, I had a feeling most of them wouldn't like that part much. "Instead of war, single combat was proposed. So I will be fighting this new leader to the death, we will be left in peace after that."

The room was quiet at me declaration. Someone laughed, and then a few more joined in. The laugher spoke up. "Well he's a bloody idiot then. I wouldn't fight you if you were in a coma." This got a few others chuckling more now and I merely shrugged with a smile.

"Maybe he is, I don't know, they are intelligent, but their minds work differently from our own. They see war and fighting as a way of life, that it is honor to die by one stronger, and pathetic to not attack ones weaker than themselves. They only have true respect for a species they see as their equals. They show that respect with peace of a sorts. its a way to stop both species from destroying each other beyond repair. They reason if they attack a greater enemy and lose, then that is what should happen, that they don't have the right to survive against those stronger than them. Those that are lesser, are seen as bugs, not worth the time or effort to slaughter except in sport. It is one reason infighting and civil war has run rampant in their society since, well, forever. They are showing us respect with this 'offer.' It is a moot point. I don't plan on losing."

Arthur whooped again and clapped, despite his burnt arm. It was heavily bandaged and had been soaked in charms all night, so the man probably couldn't feel much of anything in his burns. I smiled and bid them all farewell before we headed back outside.

My next bit of business was the gather the rest of the human race in the meeting hall and deliver the same message. With a simple sonorous charm I had them all gathered within an hour. Their reaction was much the same. A feeling of relief had been granted to them now. They'd all seen me fight at this point, and were confident I could probably kill just about anything. It wasn't all happiness as I let them go though. I saw tears and crying in the crowd as it dispersed. People had died, most of them quickly and horribly. We would be conducting funerals over the next several days, and by the end of it we would have a small cemetary. The spouses of the deceased asked me if it would be okay for them to handle the preparations. They all wanted a hand in providing a proper burial for the dead. I had no problems with that, and gave them all my deepest apologies.

There was some anger directed at me, but I didn't seem to be getting the heaps of blame I expect. It seemed most of them understood that they'd have all been dead if I hadn't brought them. And they'd been warned of the dangerous of the beautiful and mad world. I still filled my heart with sadness.

I sighed as the long gloomy day came to an end. I considered contacting Svenwhick, before remembering the mirror we used to talk with had been blown out into the mud when the villages wards collapsed. Hermione and I retired early that night after checking on the patients one final time. We lay in bed that night, wrapped in each others arms. Such days could keep me awake for hours on end, but given my lack of sleep the previous night, it didn't take long before the both of us drifted off in a dead sleep.

A/N: Sorry about the late update everyone, had trouble getting away yesterday seeing as it was christmas.

Another down and another closer to the end. I hope you all are enjoying this little tale of mine, and that most of you aren't disappointed at the lack of a huge continent spanning war. I'm afraid if I did that, then I'd have to kill off most of the humans, and I think that would be just a bit too depressing given the nature of this story. Read, enjoy, and review, until next time folks.

Merry belated Christmas everyone.


	20. Plans

Three days after the attack, six days until the next choosing, Svenwhick appeared at the gates of our village. He looked harried and bothered, anxious. I had been fitting someone with a metallic arm, her's started at the elbow instead of the wrist like mine, when one of the wall guards came to inform me.

"Let him in, of course let him in." I made the last few connections and watched as my patient jolted at the slight shock before her eyes widened. Their new limbs were much the same as mine, but still metallic instead of the obsidian glassy black. She moved it experimentally, twisted the wrist and wiggled the fingers before a soft smile crossed her lips.

"Thank you so much." She leaned forward and hugged me. I felt a pang deep in my chest, but hugged her back.

"You're welcome, I'm just sorry it was necessary. Now remember it will take some getting used to, this hand is a fair bit stronger than the flesh and blood variety. Its tied directly to your nerves, so within a day or two it will start to feel like a real hand as well, but it can take a heck of a lot more punishment." She nodded and I stood up from the crouch I'd been in as I attached it. I stretched and felt my back pop as I made my way out of the room. I met Hermione in the hallway and we moved to go outside. The two of us met Svenwhick at the gates. He was slightly out of breath, as if he'd been running most of the morning. There was a small guard of four surrounding the future leader of his village. He looked relieved to see us.

The Charyepchee are a very affectionate people, and he showed this by moving forward and engulfing both of us in his long arms for a hug. I chuckled and patted him on the back. He stepped back and gave us the once over, making sure I hadn't lost any new body parts I suppose.

"I left within hours of you, we wanted to help, but honestly had no idea what we would find by the time we reached you. I would like to take your class on popping. It would be much better to be able to get here in an instant, instead of days."

I was touched by concern. Who'd have thought I'd have such a close friend in an alien?

"Any one in your village is more than welcome to join in on any lessons I teach. I'm holding off for a week or so on the apparation for now though. Please my friend, come and sit with us. There's lots to talk about." He nodded eagerly and him and his guards walked with us.

He turned to them after a moment. "Please, thank you, but I can watch for myself, especially here amongst friends. Go about and see if there's anything you can do to help them." They hesitated for only a moment before tilting there heads and walking off in different directions. I could see Svenwhick's eyes look around the place, how the ground was torn up and pock marked in places. The hastily repaired wall to the hospital, and other bits of damage that were being tended to. He spied a young man with a metal arm up to the shoulder helping someone attach a new section of wall to their home.

He turned to me again and motioned for me to continue. He headed for our home and he started talking again. "What happened here? How many did you lose?" I sighed as we walked into the front door and took a seat around our small table. I waved a hand a transfigured one of our chairs into something a bit easier for him to sit in.

"We were attacked within minutes of the rain breaching our defenses. The avarta, they're the one's responsible for the madness in the rain..." I proceeded to tell him everything. This was important information. Even if the avarta did end up seeking a tentative peace with us, something that was unsure at best, that didn't mean they would leave the charyepchee be. With a new leader they would be unpredictable. I only had the word of one of them as to what they would do, and that was only if he won. If he lost all bets were off. I'd kill them all if I had to. I didn't want to have to go every village and commit genocide, but I would if I needed to.

He sat back in mild shock. It was a lot of information to take in. For centuries the charyepchee had been suffering silently due to the rain. It was true that the effects weren't always truly harmful, but most of the time they were. He sighed and huffed.

"I am sorry for your losses my friends. Anything mine and I can do for you we will."

I nodded at his words and smiled a sad smile. Hermione was leaning against me, her head on my shoulder. Hearing it all again, laid out like that had been rough on her as well. "Thank you my friend. We held funeral services yesterday, and people are trying to keep their spirits up. There's plenty to do. We still have a few people resting in the hospital, but most of them are back on their feet now. They fought hard, but the avarta are truly vicious." My eyes darkened. "I've been tempted to wipe them all out regardless of what happens, but I'm going to try to avoid that if I can. If they leave us be, then we can leave them be. I'll be setting up wards all along the edge of the Stilted Lands, for hundreds of miles in either direction. I wanted to be informed if they attempted to come down again."

Svenwhick nodded at that. "It is a good idea. We will send ward weavers to assist you, it wouldn't hurt for us to add our own set of precautions." I nodded in thanks and went to get Svenwhick something to eat. He'd left shortly after us, and had been marching hard in the pouring rain for days now.

"You and those you brought with you are more than welcome to stay as long as you like. Sometime tomorrow or the next day I plan on heading back up there to see if I can find out where they'll be having this choosing. I might just hide out and watch the proceedings, see how things go."

Hermione tensed slightly at that and looked at me hard. "I'd be coming with you this time of course." I grinned at her.

"Of course love. I promised not to leave you out of it again." A tiny voice in the back of my mind chimed in at that, reminding me of vague and distant plans I'd been considering but I shook them off, that was for later, this was now.

"Good, I'd hate to have to kick your ass in front of all the colonists." She leaned forward and kissed me. "How is your side feeling?" Svenwhick looked between us in concern.

"His side?"

"Harry way stabbed... twice in the same side less than an hour apart. He'll say he's fine, but he lost a hand once and claimed the same thing. Come on, lift up your shirt and let me have a peak."

I sighed and did as I as told. I heard a soft intake of breath from Sven as I lifted my shirt up. There were two new scars to add to the collection. One of them had a slight redness around the edges and it itched vaguely on the the inside a little, but I was good as new otherwise.

The two new scars sat one on top of the other, the top one slightly crooked. There were numerous ones that crisscrossed my body visible now. Several puncture wounds and three different places that had both entrance and exit wounds. half a dozen shallower scars could be seen as well.

"You have lived a hard life my friend..." I laughed and dropped my shirt after Hermione had finished prodding me.

"Indeed I have. Most of those are rather old at this point, but there was a while there I seemed to be constantly injured in one way or another."

Hermione sighed. "That's because you were. We were always moving, always fighting. Poor Daniel thought you were dead a dozen times over." I smiled fondly at the thought of our late friend, it had been a long time since the death of the only Malfoy I ever liked, so most of the sting was gone by now.

"I miss him when I think about him."

She smiled with just a drop of old grief in her eyes. "I do too love, he was a wonderful man."

I nodded. "that he was, a goofball with a heart of gold." I coughed to clear the slight thickness that had developed in my throat and turned back to Svenwhick. "Wanna watch us attach a metal leg?"

2.

Svenwhick was fascinated. His people had some incredible healing magic. They could regrow limbs in certain circumstances and fix a plethora of birth defects. It was unfortunate that most of the more complicated spells were species specific.

"If I knew how, I'd offer to regrow the leg, but I'm afraid such spells seem to fail on humans." He rubbed the side of his face in thought and watched as the new leg was slid into space. With a spark of magic to attach it to the nervous system, the owner of the new leg was shown to let their magic flow into the limb naturally. This gave them full mobility and control over the appendage. The usual warning about strength was given and they were off, walking around the hospital to give it a test drive.

"Its okay Sven, this works for now. Perhaps in the future we can all set aside some time to study each other's magic. You never know, might just take a little adjusting to get similar results for the both of us."

He nodded at that, looking a bit better at the idea. He followed us back outside and looked around the the cradle again. "You two have been something truly wonderful here, I'm sorry that you've already had to defend yourselves though. Perhaps the Avarta's tenacity was one of the reasons my people fled to the trees all those years ago."

I sighed and rubbed my face. "Yes, they certainly don't give up. They fought until the last attacker was dead. When I spoke to one in the Stilted Lands, he confirmed as much. They don't give up, don't retreat. They seek to subjugate or eliminate anything they see as weaker than them, and to fight and best anything they see as better. Only equals are spared, at the risk of mutual annihilation. They'll fight to the last soldier on the battlefield, but don't wish to risk their entire species. It is an... odd system. One that they haven't adhered to properly ever since the Oldfather took command. With him dead they're looking to start up their old ways. I think I might have secured future peace for the charyepchee as well, I was told they'd stay up there, while we stayed down here." A thought crossed my mind at something and I asked. "Sven, are their any other intelligent races on Faye, other than your's and the avarta's and now humans?"

He frowned at that as we walked and gave the equivalent of a charyepchee shrug. "I honestly do not know my friend. My people are not great in number. We have several villages and towns spread throughout the forests, but still we are not truly many. And we do not travel outside our forests often. Any outsiders are usually watched and followed from a distance, to prevent them from causing mischief. We will not normally engage if we do not have to." He grinned at me then, "I believe you are familiar with that practice."

I laughed, remembering back to when we had first met. "Ah, yes I do. I just find it odd that the avarta have such a philosophy if there are only two native races of sentience."

"The world, Faye as you call it, is a very large place. Once long ago we used to travel more, when our society built cities that could move with the world, and had technology far beyond what we have now, but I personally do not know of them. Perhaps beyond the Stilted Lands, there are others. This planet is divided, and the two halves have been isolated since before memory. I know there is land and country past the Stilted Lands, but I have never seen them, and in truth, know nothing about them."

That lead to many possibilities. Perhaps if we ever got a true moment of peace, once the cradle was properly settled and recovered, Hermione and I could go investigate. My eyes cast upward toward the sky, then again perhaps not.

He went with us that day, helping where he could, and observing our different flavor of magic. He sighed at the mess that had been made to save our crops and helped set the soil to rights. The charyepchee had developed some incredible farming magic over the years. By the time we were finished it looked as it had since before the attack, in truth it might have looked a bit better. He eyed the twisted heaps that remained of the wrecked trailers and then the one still in decent shape.

"What are those? Or perhaps I should say, what were they?"

I went on to briefly explain them, "we call them trailers, although that's far to simple of a term, they're spaceships, they just lack their own engines. Sealed against vacuum, with internal temperature controls and life support. Our colonists slept their way here, we used these to transport them to the surface, along with housing some of the animals we had asleep as well. One of them contained nothing but seeds and eggs. Remind me to get you a few, we certainly have more seeds than we originally thought we'd need now." My eyes darkened at the thought of those killed above us in orbit, and those lost more recently on the ground. I turned to look at him fully. "There are terrible things out there in the empties of space, horrible things Svenwhick. One of them killed over two hundred of our people while we were down here exploring," I sighed, "The natural wards this planet seems to produce luckily kept it out, or it could have wiped away most of the life here long ago, it latched onto the closest thing it could reach instead, our ship. I killed it, but it had spores and had already sent those out into the darkness, seeking new targets."

Svenwhick stood dumbstruck at my words. "Could have killed us all?"

I nodded. "It turned the dead into monstrosities, crawling slinking, suffering things that howled and begged for death. I gave it to them. Be grateful you live on the world you do, my own home would have been defenseless against a similar invasion. Of course, we managed to wreck it just fine without any outside help." I grunted, suddenly disgusted with the old humanity, and the world in general. I shook my head, this time would be different, these humans had learned from the mistakes of their ancestors, and would continue to do so, and I hope pass on the knowledge to their own children.

Svenwhick and his four men stayed for the remainder of the day, before I apparated them back home that evening. We parted with heavy hearts, both of us worried about the immediate future. My eyes cast upward toward the top of that strange mountain range as I returned to the cradle. What plans were they making, where was this selection taking place? I simply didn't have answers for such questions, but I was determined to find out. This time I would take Hermione with me. The guards opened the gates for me, they were far more vigilant now, and I entered, intent on finding my wife.

3.

Hermione had been having similar thoughts to my own. "Yes, I say we find out where this trial will be held. If we discover it ahead of time then we'll be able to observe, and... interfere if we need to." There was that old steel in her eyes again, that look she'd went so very long without have to use. In truth it didn't seem to take much to be brought to the surface again. I was slightly ashamed to admit to myself, that I like that steel, I loved it. My wife was strong, a warrior that had proven herself in battle time and again. My memory drifted back to the frizzy haired girl I'd met on a red steam engine long ago. That brightness, the desire to learn, to make the world better. It was a long time for the both of us, but far longer for me. I'd lived entire lives after she disappeared, and I believe more than an millennia had probably passed before she came screaming back into my life, curtesy of a rip in time and space. I wondered at that, back to that day. Of all the people, and all the places, Hermione was the one to come through. my eyes looked upward, through the ceiling of our home and to the stars, perhaps there was some sort of god after all.

"Harry? You okay? are you listening?" I looked down at her and smiled at her frown of concern.

"I'm fine gorgeous, just a little lost in thought is all, sorry." She smiled a bit and came up to wrap her arms around me.

"Don't be, its been a long week, a long life really."

I laughed at that. "You have no idea." I held her close and squeezed her. "So in the morning," I announced as I pulled back to look at her, "we'll go up and see what all we can see? I think both of us have had plenty exposure to the avarta to be able to sense a big group of them. If we can't find the actual area they'll use to have their trial, then we should be able to find a big enough village that we can follow them when the time comes."

She nodded, still looking at me with a hint of concern on her face. I smiled trying to relieve that worry, I was spending too much time in my head, and she'd noticed, like she usually did. I needed to focus on the here and now. Lives could depend on it. "I say we stick to the air. Did the charms on your suit work better than casting them?"

"They seemed to, I didn't get caught, but I also never gave them much of a chance to look. I say we use them, but don't get too low. If we stay up high enough, just to observe, we should be fine."

She nodded again and hugged me tight and kissed me. "Are you sure you're alright love?" I thought about telling her then, the things that had been going through my head, the half formed plans that even I couldn't let myself really consider or look at, but decided against it. There was no need to worry her further, I'd tell her when and If I ever decided anything.

"We've just had a trying time of it is all love. When we returned to our ship to discover that monstrosity aboard... and now this with the avarta. It weighs on me. I've seen too much death in my life, and I had hoped to put that all away for a while, but we can't seem to catch a break."

She hugged me tighter and I melted int the embrace. I realized then that a tear or two had escaped and were making their way down my cheek. I sniffed and chuckled dryly, it lacked all humor.

"I'm so sorry... you've done this for so long, so much longer than I have, I forget that sometimes. I still think of you as that scrawny green eyed boy I met on that train all those years ago, but even then you were old weren't you, ancient, even if you didn't know it at the time. I promise love, you're not alone now, and you never will be again. Never." I nodded into her hair and closed my eyes, taking comfort from her warmth and touch... and gradually, I relaxed.

We stayed like for some time before I pulled back, smiling at her now. I truly didn't know what I'd do without her, before I had no choice, and always had an enemy to chase to keep me going. But now, well, I think i could almost be happy, content, just to live a life of peace. If I'd be allowed to.

"Let's get some sleep handsome." She grinned, a tad mischievously at me and I felt something else stirring in me, an animal that could never get enough, "Well... lets go to bed anyway, after all... we have a big day tomorrow." I let her lead me to the bedroom, a grin finding its way across my face.

4.

We made the announcement early the next morning. I'd called a meeting in the gathering hall and got all those well enough to attended to show. There wasn't much fan fare to the announcement, just that Hermione and I would be leaving for a while. The official reason was that we would be looking into securing a defense for the Cradle that couldn't be breached. It was true in a way, but with half of the colonists still shell shocked from the events of days past, we'd decided to skip the gritty details.

I secured a promise that those not in attendance would be informed as quickly as they were found, and that everyone would hold down the fort in our absence. I assured them that if something happened we could and would return quickly to handle it. I placed Arthur and his mother in charge of keeping things running.

They both seemed a little overwhelmed at that, but accepted the task readily enough. "Don't worry," I'd told them, "We won't be gone long, a few days at most." I'd given Arthur's mother my mirror, Svenwhick had been kind enough to grab it before heading our way, and told her to say Hermione's name into it if they needed to reach us. My wife had also placed monitoring wards around the edges of our little village, just so we could keep an eye on the area.

When the time came to leave we dressed in a hurry, dark clothes and light armor layered in concealing charms. Violet was pacing our home, looking distressed at being left behind. I did what I could to assure him, but I don't know how much he truly understood. Sometimes he felt more like a person than an animal, and I was sad to have to leave him. "It'll be okay buddy, we'll stay safe, safer than usual, I promise." That seemed to calm him some. His long thin arms wrapped Hermione and I in a tight hug.

He trotted over to Jean and climbed up into her arms as we turned to leave. Together, the both of us rose slowly up into the air, and flew off, heading for the mountains. The masks of our suits had build in communication spells, it would have been hard to hear each other with the constant whipping wind otherwise. As we rose upward, the air around us grew warmer, a stark contrast as to what would have happened on Earth.

Hermione's voice entered my ear, crisp and clear as if she'd leaned over and spoke directly to me. "Where should we start? This choosing of there's is still several days off, we need to find its location, along with the as many of the participants as we can."

I thought about it briefly before speaking. "We can proceed one of two ways. Look for the avarta's signatures, and then attempt to discover the area of this choosing from there, or we can head back to the village I found the Oldfather in. I know at least one of the possible leaders is there, we could wait and follow, or perhaps eavesdrop to discover what we're looking for."

I let Hermione think about it as we continued upward, heading for the mountains. It became warmer, the humidity rose dramatically as we did. Moisture stuck to our suits before the charmed material whicked it away. The two of us were swallowed with cloud cover, the rolling swirls of water tried to soak us again but our suits kept it at bay. It was like passing through a haze of steam. The clouds were so thick we were lost in a disconcerting swirl of grey. A stray spark of lightning danced off in the distance and we picked up speed. There was no need to get fried before we even got there. We broke through the cloud bank and there it was, another land, nearly as alien to the one below, as they both were to our original home. We slowed and activated the charms built into our age old suits.

"Lets keep going up, so we can get a better look. You said none of the village were at the bases correct? All of them are in the mountains?"

"Yeah, the one I saw was rather small, I don't know if that was where most of the fighters came from or not, but there weren't many of them there." We continued onward, keeping a healthy distance from the ground and moved in toward the mountains. The air was still warm, just a degree or two cooler than the thick clouds we'd passed through minutes before.

It didn't end up being nearly as hard to find a village as we thought. All you had to do was look for the smoke. Separated by miles of mountain jungle, and very little distance in the air, fire's could be seen Thick columns of rising smoke dotted the landscape. We debated with each other for a few minutes as to which one we should approach. The largest fire was high on one of the taller mountains. The smoke coming off of it was nearly large enough to justify calling it a cloud.

"Let's head for that one, should be one of the larger villages." The two of us zoomed off, staying high to make us indistinct, that way if our charms failed we might still be mistaken for a flying animal instead of intruders on some ancient rite. When we got close enough to make out movement the two of us dropped like stones. We swooped in low and fast, and quickly found a tall tree to perch in . We stayed near the top, hidden by our charms and foliage.

We were right near the edge of a massive circular clearing. It had either just been recently created, or expanded. It was almost a perfect circle, and the edge was ringed with sharpened stakes made from the trunks of huge trees. The soil had been churned to make a sort of dirt arena. The edges of the clearing were on a slope with indentation like wide flat steps. I suppose avarta could stand and watch from their. The ring of churned dirt was lower, and again nearly a perfect circle.

Avarta were everywhere. More and more of them were streaming in from paths that branched out from the center of the clearing. Some of them gathered around many of the wood and skin huts that dotted the very top of the clearing. Others were speaking or jostling each other, and there were many fights going on. It seemed to me that nearly anything could cause them to start fighting with one another. None of them were broken up, in fact many of them had crowds around them, the others roaring in approval as the avarta grievously injured one another. These rings of spectators lead to more fights breaking it. It was organized chaos.

We darted from tree to tree, using a combination of our natural strength and balance and sticking charms to achieve a nearly silent movement. We made our way around the clearing toward the largest of these huts. I spied him then, the avarta I'd talked to days ago, the one that let me know what was going on. He was bigger than most of his kind, and surrounded by other avarta of similar size. One or two were larger, and there was one there that was nearly as big as a troll. I wished luck to whoever was lucky enough to fight that ugly bastard.

These avarta, we assumed they were leaders of various villages, were calmer than the unruly bunch streaming in. You could still see that anger and hatred that came so easily to these people, but their control was stronger, a few of them were even speaking to one another in what could have been called calm quiet voices. We sat and watched them for a time, a fight nearly broke out between the two biggest of them but it was quickly stopped by the others. We were two far away to hear properly without using additional charms we didn't want to risk, but I activated a translation spell so we could catch bits of conversations.

"...Not time yet..."

"Break the rules..."

"Dishonored death..."

"So their so calm because they know their actual fights are coming up soon?"

I shrugged at Hermione's question as we continued to watch them. "I don't know love, could be. Perhaps once they get together like this, to choose a new leader they have to abstain from fighting until the actual event starts. Your guess is as good as mine. I've got a feeling that the longer this goes on, the more agitated they'll become. Maybe thats the point. The angrier they are, the more bloodshed will happen once they're allowed to go at each other."

"I wonder if its single combat or if they all just go at each other at once. The second honestly seems more their style."

I nodded at that, that did seem like it would appeal to their mentality more. But perhaps single combat would be a better show of their actual strengths. We would just have to wait and see.

The two of us would settle in to watch for a while. We wanted to observe them, see if we could gleam anything new about them, if they didn't know we were there, perhaps we could catch them at revealing something they didn't intend. The two of us agreed, we would watch them for now, and later when we left, we would leave scrying spells in our place so we could watch them from afar. We both sat on a particularly large tree branch, spells helping to make it more comfortable, and Hermione rested her head on my shoulder as we prepared to be very still for hours.

One thing was for sure, once that actual contest began, both of us would be returning to watch in person. This was a fight neither one of us wanted to miss, and there was a lot at stake based solely on the acts of an alien race.

A/N: Getting close to the end now folks. This is one of those stories that I could probably drag on for years and years without finishing if I wanted to, But I don't want to write something like that. Ive seen fics that are hundreds of thousands of words long, and like haven't gotten Harry out of his first year of Hogwarts yet. I personally don't have the drive to do something like that, not only would it lead to burn out, but I also think the story can get rather boring and stale, seeing as how it never actually goes anywhere. That being said I'm pretty close to the end now, expect a pole up soon, to help me decided what I'll be writing next.

Cheers,

Harkon


	21. Spying

The two of us headed home at dusk, but left spells in our place. When we returned home, we immediately set up one of the large spare computer screens we had in storage and hooked it up to the scrying magic we'd left back at the choosing grounds. We had several duplicate's for most of the ship's parts. Almost everything except power sources. They'd been difficult to craft, and the materials we needed to make the one's we had were extremely rare. It had cost us eventually for not making duplicates of those as well.

Hermione and I drafted David and Lora in helping watch the feed at all times. My wife and I needed rest and recover. We didn't know how all this was going to go down, but we both needed to be prepared.

There had been a few false alarms in the middle of the night. The avarta were so quick to anger, and so tightly compact in the choosing grounds that fights broke out constantly. We'd all been fooled at least once.

Then, nine days after I killed the Oldfather, the contest started in earnest. We all sat down to watch. Hermione had been watching at the time it started. "It was actually quiet, that's how I knew something was about to happen." The computer screen filled the room with a low roar from all the screaming avarta. Two rows of ten avarta marched out of the tent in line with one another. They came in all shapes and sizes, and they were all painted with a ash grey color. Every one had different designs and symbols. They marched down the hill toward the ring shaped arena.

They roared and snarled at each other, but didn't touch one another. Once they were all within the arena and had spread out, a particularly scarred avarta walked to the edge. The roars of the crowd quieted again as he began to speak.

"The Oldfather is dead, and the time to choose another has come!" The crowd roared and screamed. The speaker laughed and held up his arms. "The strongest member of each of our mountain clans has been put forward. They have already killed many to reach this point. The choosing is divided into three parts. The first is the Tenzhok, Every avarta against every other. When the plate is struck, the first trial begins. Those standing at the end of time limit will progress forward. The winner of these trials, will be given the honor of feasting on the dead!"

Here the crowd roared again in approval. Cannibals? Why wasn't I surprised. The twenty "contestants" were stretching and growling at each other. I could see the one I'd spoken to easily enough, he wasn't the biggest, but was on the larger end of the spectrum. The narrator, that old scarred avarta, raised a massive hammer and brought it down onto a metallic plate set up at the edge of the arena. It was much like a round table made of flat metal on top. When the hammer struck, a piercing wavering sound filled the area, and our ears. I'd thought for a moment that the scrying charms were experiencing some sort of interference, but they didn't seem to be

As soon as the hammer struck, the contestants were off like a shot. We watched in partial horror and partial fascination as they tore into each other. Bolts of red energy flew everywhere as the massive fighters weaved and dodged around the blows. They could be incredibly fast for such large beings. One of them lost an arm and kept fighting. It had managed to sink its teeth into the other's throat, ripping his jaw and neck free of flesh and sinew.

Another lost a leg, and switched to running on the remaining three, bounding about like a wounded dog, still graceful in spite of the missing limb. I watched as the avarta I'd spoken to gut an enemy before rolling away from crimson slashes of power. The three legged avarta jumped onto his back and tried to bite at the back of his head, but he twisted and placed three leg into the path of an oncoming attack. Fountains of blood leapt out of its side and back before it slumped off of him sideways, dead.

Five of them were dead within the first minute. Those remaining were unhurt, except for one arm. Two avarta pulled another in half between the two of them, littering the grounds with a splash of bright entrails. Lora stood and rushed to the bathroom. We could all hear her vomiting and David followed quickly after her to help.

I glanced toward Hermione and she just shook her head in shock. The cheering in the crowd was nearly deafening again. I scanned the crowd and came back with another shock.

"Do you see what they're doing in the crowds?"

She blinked and started scanning the crowd at that before a frown marred her features. "Are they doing what I think they're doing?"

I chuckled dryly, it held little humor. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"Thats disgusting."

"Now Hermione, your one to always talk about respecting different cultures."

She looked at me like I was insane and I grinned despite the grizzly entertainment our scrying charms were providing. "Harry, I love you, but that's one fantasy we won't be trying out anytime ever."

I threw my head back and laughed. "I don't think its something you're going to have to worry about love. Look, there's only seven of them left." We refocused on the fighting, trying to ignore the... carnal entertainment some of the other avarta were engaging in.

The large scarred avarta held his hammer in one hand above the metal plate. I didn't see anything that he could read the time off of, but he seemed to be waiting for just the right moment. Finally, after another avarta had his lower jaw blown off, he struck the plate and the fighting came to an abrupt end. I scanned those still alive and found the one I was 'rooting' for. He was drenched in blood and viscera, but seemed mostly unharmed other than a wound to the shoulder. The remaining Avarta either seemed completely unharmed or near dead.

The biggest of the lot, standing nearly a meter taller than our's, seemed unhurt but for scratches. The one armed avarta had survived, the injury barely seemed to bother him. Another one had been blinded, and its face was little more than hamburger, but it was standing strong, a single magic eye could be seen glaring out of the mess. Out of the two remaining, one had lost an ear and an eye on the left side of his head, the the last was holding in his guts with a bloodied hand.

"That one isn't going to make it." I pointed to the one standing on shaking legs with its hands pressed against its guts. "They do alright if they lose a limb, seem to recover pretty quickly, but that one has had all his soft bits tenderized." Hermione made a face at the description but didn't argue with me.

David and Lora returned then and she immediately went green at the gills. We sent them on home with a thank you and an apology, now it would be our turn to provide dinner. The both of them assured us that it was fine, to not worry about it. All the same I insisted, they'd gotten quite the shock on our behalf.

We kept a close eye on the scrying display from then on. It seemed as if the potentials were being lead away, and the arena was being cleared. I wondered momentarily if they would be given medical treatment between whatever trials would happen next. Somehow I doubted it. Seemed like it would go against their strange philosophy. We got something to eat in the down time between events and sat waiting impatiently for it to continue.

Old world humans were nearly as blood thirsty as these people, so much so that they'd nearly destroyed the entire species. I'd lived through many periods in time, and in all of them humans were a violent, bloodthirsty lot. People assumed things got better as time went on but it simply wasn't true. After Hermione disappeared, and before the fall of the bombs, was a particularly bloody period in human history. Before the end of it humans were freely killing each other on reality tv for fabulous prizes. For all their talk of civilization and culture, they loved a good bloodbath.

And what was I doing? Sitting here eating a snack, like some kid parked in front of the TV watching Saturday morning cartoons, soaking it all in. I shook my head in dry amusement, I was one of those old world humans after all.

2.

within a few hours, the arena was set up and ready to go for another round. I wonder what they'd be doing now? Another bout to the death? Tag with razor blades? Perhaps they'd have a race that involved cutting off their opponents feet?

Maybe a spelling B? Your word is genocide, can it be used in a sentence? We go out and commit genocide on the weekends, to unwind and blow off steam. Oh, genocide, g-e-n-o-...

"Harry are you alright? You were... spelling something under your breath and muttering."

I shook my head and grinned at Hermione. "Just a thought running away with me love. Look, they're about all set up now." She gave me one more funny look and I kissed her to calm her nerves. We both turned and focused on the scrying screen, ready to see what would happen next.

The large scarred avarta in charge of banging on the huge slate of metal raised his hands and the crowd quieted significantly. It was hard to get such a rowdy group to get completely quiet, but they got close. The remaining six entered and walked down toward the arena. the were placed on circles just on the outer edge fo the softened dirt. I took a good luck at the arena now. it looked larger, possibly done with magic when one of us weren't looking. In fact, it looked nearly twice as big. There were boxes of varying height and lengths scattered about everywhere. I hadn't the slightest clue as to what they could possibly be for, but I suppose I'd find out soon enough.

The Avarta themselves seemed rough, but were more together than I thought they would be. Perhaps they were allowed to attend to their own wounds. The one with hamburger face had mostly scabbed over, and the swelling was way down as what it should have been. Gutless was hunched over with a hand on his stomach, but it was wrapped in something, at least a bandage had been applied. The event manager, it was as good a name as any, began to speak then.

"The next trial will soon commence! There is no time limit, no rules beyond that they cannot leave the arena. They will continue onward their only goal survival, until only two remain."

The crowd roared wildly at that. The large scarred avarta hefted his hammer and held it high over head. The boxes in the arena began to quake and quiver. I watched, just as its hammer struck the metal plate, they sprang to life. Some of them sprouted a dozen whirring blades and whipped through the air fast enough to be a blur. Others turned into low walls, like cover, and some of them began to shoot and spin fireballs and bolts of lightning. A few other boxes grew teeth like gruesome traps and started skittering around the arena on spider legs.

We watched in fascination as the six remaining darted forward into the arena. They ducked and weaved around whirring blades and fire. Now that they'd all entered the area, all of the traps began to move. It was insanity to watch. They were mostly ignoring one anther for now, intent on getting a feel for the various traps spread around the arena.

The avarta missing an ear and an eye was nearly decapitated by a spinning bladed trap that leapt on him. He ducked and swerved to avoid the blades, taking several cuts in the process.

One arm capitalized on this and sent a spinning crimson blade toward earless. The attack caught earless in the center of its back. He stumbled at the wound that bit into bone and lost the rhythm. It was over after that. One two three blades struck earless' body and chopped him into gory pieces.

I watched dumbfounded at the display, I could hear Hermione munching on spark pods toward my right.

"Gruesome," she muttered under her breath. I nodded in agreement.

One arm cackled madly and leapt over a fireball, his lack of an arm wasn't slowing him down any. The big guy had taken several bolts of lightning before it managed to scramble behind a wall for cover. Guts was slower than the rest. The injuries sustained in the first trial were taking their toll.

One of the sets of walking teeth managed to catch him on a leg and bit down, the metal death mashed relentlessly. Blood spurted from the wound and we could hear bone crack even from our hidden scrying charms.

The great big bastard stood up from cover and picked up the wall effortlessly. He hurled it at the trap, and crushed it flat before he stalked up to guts and drove a fist into its face so hard its head bounced off the dirt, crushed beyond recognition in a single blow.

The trap the big guy threw twisted and reformed into a twirling bladed mass of dismemberment. We watched as the biggest avarta managed to catch one of the twisting blades and proceeded to lift and spin the trap around itself before flinging it in the general direction of one arm. Its hands were bloody, but all the fingers seemed to be intact.

One arm jumped backward and narrowly avoided the spinning death trap. The blades buzzed and hummed and leapt outward at him. He back peddled and flung magic arcs of crimson at the tornado of death. The magic seemed to splash harmlessly against them. One bit of magic had been caught on the tip of a blade and was sent ricocheting out into the spectators. An avarta caught it square in the chest, and collapsed in a fountain of blood. The crowd roared its approval.

One eye darted amongst the traps, his pulsing mess of a face dribbled blood from the strain of his movements. Our guy, for lack of a better word, kicked one eye in the head on his blind side. He went tumbling in the dirt, splayed outward and dazed. Our guy stalked forward and summoned something like an axe made of the dark red energy common to his people.

He hefted the blade and brought it downward, one eye narrowly avoided the attack by rolling to his side. He got onto all fours now and scrambled backward, trying to put room between himself and our guy. The one we were 'rooting' for stalked forward, quick but not too quick. I understood what he was doing almost immediately and watched in horror stricken fascination as he herded his opponent backward straight into the path of chomping metal teeth.

The trap closed around his neck first and bit so deep the teeth nearly touched, the next bite was to the back of the head, we could hear the skull break. The last bite decapitated one eye completely.

"He was playing with him." I reached over and grabbed a few spark pods from Mione. She merely nodded in agreement and continued watching.

Our avarta stood off by himself on one edge of the arena, the great big bastard turned to look at him for a moment before looking back to one arm. The avarta in question roared at his bigger opponent and ran toward him. Slashes of crimson filled the air, thick and sparking, as one arm attacked and ran at the same time.

The biggest avarta jumped to the side to avoid most of them, and let a few hit him. Lines of blood formed on his thick arms where the magic struck but the bastard didn't even seem to notice them. One arm leapt into the air over a dozen feet before he would have reached his larger foe and spun with both feet forward. The double kick landed square in the big bastard's face. One arm began to roar but stopped abruptly at the site before him. He hadn't noticed as he'd spun and landed, but the big one hadn't moved. The kick hadn't even managed to make him take a single step back.

With one impossibly long and thick arm, the largest avarta reached forward and snatched one arm by the head. He pulled the wounded avarta forward and dug his fingers into the beaten creatures stump. This illicited a howl of pain that was cut short with a blow to the ribs. We could hear bone cracking again. One more strike to the same spot and one arm fell limp and dead.

The great big monster howled and roared. It beat the thick muscle on its chest and turned to face the only remaining avarta. They locked eyes and glared hatefully at each other, just as the metal plate was struck with a ringing gong.

3.

The two of us shared a look as the last avartas were led from the arena. "If those … people were any stronger magically…"

"I know, they're a vicious lot. I knew they were blood thirsty, but I didn't think it went so far even amongst themselves."

"Could you imagine a bag full of those traps, shrunken and then dropped into a battle field from overhead? The sheer chaos that would cause…" Hermione's words trailed off at the thought, and in fact she grew a tad pale as her imagination ran away from her.

I pulled her into my lap and held her before I spoke. " I know love, that's why we're trying to eliminate them as an enemy as quickly and as peacefully as we can."

She snorted bitterly at that. "With a fight to the death."

I shrugged my shoulders. "They've made several crucial mistakes. The first was assuming I'd went full out in that battle with them ten days ago. The second was giving me time to heal. But the worst was asking to fight me in the first place. They are strong, and powerful, but they don't know who they're messing with."

I kissed her then and she relaxed into me. The following few hours provided a distraction we needed from all the bloodshed. We were so… absorbed with one another that we nearly missed the start of the end of it.

Hermione had only caught a heated glance at the scrying screen for a second, and nearly ignored it in the heat of the moment, but relented finally when the scarred avarta's voice filled our room.

"Bloody nasty things ruin the mood."

I grinned at her and kissed her again as we both disentangled from each other andscooted forward to watch. "You were getting tired anyway, I can tell these things."

She huffed at me, and pulled the nearby blanket around her shoulders as her cheeks tinged themselves pink. "Not my fault you're an insatiable animal."

"I can't help myself," I whispered into her ear, "just the effect you have on me love."

She shivered and sent me a mock glare, "behave yourself or we'll end up missing it." From the smile that bloomed at the corners of her mouth I doubted she'd care all that much.

I snapped off a crisp salute as best I could sitting starkers on the bed, "yes ma'am!"

She laughed and pushed me slightly before pulling me close again so we could both lean forward and watch.

It didn't take long for the avarta to ruin the cheerful mood between the two of us. We watched as the last two combatants were lead out of the big hut and down toward the arena once more. The one we were rooting for, and the big guy that had literally punched someone to death. I took stock of both of them and wondered briefly if this was the time, if we should act now. I almost got up to get dressed but stopped myself at the last moment.

I could go, rig the fight from a distance. An invisible piercer delivered at just the right moment would end the fight, and no one would be the wiser. I sat there, trembling with indecision until Hermione spoke.

"We just have to deal with the situation as it comes love, interfering now could be disastrous if you were discovered. I know you're good, but you've always been better at blowing stuff up as opposed to slinking around in the shadows. Plus we still don't know if the charms woven into that old armor is any more effective than a freshly cast spell. You might light up like a neon sign in their eyes. We simply can't know without testing it."

I scowled in mild frustration but nodded. "We really should have asked Svenwhick to test it. I'm sure their eyes work about the same way."

She nodded and hugged me. "We will the next time we see him, just in case." I kissed her on top of the head and focused on the coming fight.

The two of us sat and watched with rapt attention as the scarred avarta began to speak again. He was grinning nastily and spinning his hammer absently in his hands. It was odd that I'd never seen avarta use weapons. The Oldfather had once used a blade of fire, but he didn't seem to be the best example of how avarta truly were, but now as I watched, both of the combatants were wielding weapons. The big one had a simple handle with a blob of metal attached at the end. The blob was prickly for lack of a better word. dripping spikes dotted the entire surface, but there were spots where edges had been sharpened on it at as, seemingly at random. It reminded me distinctly of a mace, but with a more random design on the head.

The avarta I'd spoken to briefly was holding what looked a bit like a sword, and a giant spike. there was no guard, and not much of a handle, but a long thin tube of metal with a point. I could just make out that the last half of the shaft was flattened slightly into a wedge shape, and the last third of it was flattened and edged like a proper sword blade. I suppose you could use it both like a sword and a blunt weapon if you knew what you were doing.

The scarred avarta's words filled our room as it began to speak in the deep barking gravel they all seemed to communicate in. "And here we have it! The last trial, the final test. The best we had to put forward, facing one another like our grandfather's did before them. Who will win? Who will the gods of combat and blood select next to lead our great people?" The crowd roared and shouted, several fights broke out between different members of the group, which only led to more cheering. These things would have paid good money to watch the Spanish inquisition at work.

The big guy flexed his arms and screamed, the veins in his chest and arms bulging. The one I'd spoken to, the one that wanted a fight to the death with me, merely stood and watched. His entire body quivered in hatred and anticipation. He didn't seem to be one for show boating, and let his actions speak for him. He was a heartless killer like the rest of his people, but he seemed to possess more control than the vast majority of them.

The scarred avarta began speaking again. "There is no time limit for this contest. These two will go at each other until one or both of them are dead. And if both of them die, we get to do this all over again!" The crowd roared and cheered at that. "Now, the arena with shrink, and change shape. Fire with leap upward from the ground, and acid pools with appear and disappear at random. With the ground constantly shifting, they must keep moving. Standing still in one place will ensure death from the dirt itself." It grinned wickedly and hefted its hammer. The scarred announcer looked at the final two. "You boys ready to get on with it

then?" Huh, I guess that answered that question. I'd had no clue on the gender of the great big bastard until now. To me they all looked male and angry, but I suppose a few of them were female, the ones bent over in the crowd at least.

The big bastard roared and thumped his chest again. Our avarta merely growled and nodded shortly. The scarred one nodded sagely, chuckling and grinning wickedly. "Then so be it! Let the final trial begin!" it hefted the hammer and brought it down on the metal plate.

Our avarta didn't waste a moment. He turned and flung himself at the big guy instantly. He was fast, faster than he'd shown so far. The big avarta brought up his weapon and attempted to deflect the blows raining down on him. He managed to knock a few aside, but several struck home. His shoulder was pierced, and a slash to his face left a line of blood between his eyes. Our's pulled back to strike again but had to leap backward as a huge gout of flame shot up between them, and then chased them in opposite directions.

They circled around the arena, jumping out of the way of the elements the very ground was spouting at them. Our avarta jooked left and right, nearly a blur as the ground tore up around him. He leapt up high in the air and twisted. With a powerful throw, he sent the strange spike of a weapon hurtling through the air, straight at his opponent. The bigger avarta twisted while running and narrowly avoided having the spike sink into its side. The spike got caught on an arm instead and stuck there quivering. It roared and pulled the spike free before flinging it wide.

It turned and started barreling straight toward him. Our avarta held out a hand and summoned the spike with a bit of crimson energy. Interesting, I hadn't seen any of them employ any kind of magic other than combat based before. He caught the strange blade and brought it up in just enough time to block a blow that caused him to slide backward in the dirt. With all of the fire and explosions, the arena was growing quite murky. Sometimes they were only shadows in the dust. Every few moments a gust of wind, magical in nature I assumed, would blow through and scatter the dust. the big one was hammering blows down on our's and roaring in anger. Hermione and I watched in object fascination. The creature's strength was enormous. Blow after blow, enough that would have turned any human into a fine paste was struck and in turn blocked.

The big bastard began to glow red, leaking magical energy as its anger grew. It seemed to pulse, muscles bulged and it grew bigger still. It swung one more time and the spike in our avarta's hand snapped, breaking into two pieces around the middle. He leapt backward and flipped in midair, planting a kick to his opponent's face as he did so. He flipped backward two, three, four more times before coming right to the edge of the arena. I could see bits of flame licking at the bottom, if he took one more step backward they would flare up and fry him. He stood his ground and watched.

The big one was angry, mad enough to have put conscious though aside for now and charged him. Our avarta screamed and roared at him, and began to fling spells in rapid succession. Blades and spikes of crimson. A nasty looking ball of spiky red plasma, this one stuck in his foe's shoulder, and tearing ethereal claws. Some of them struck home, but many more glanced off to the right and left. I smirked, I was pretty sure I knew what he was doing. The ball of plasma hadn't done anything yet, and the big bastard seemed to not have noticed it.

At the last possible second, our avarta leapt sideways out of the path of his charging opponent. It was too big, running to fast and with far to much bulk to turn in time or stop. It slammed into the edge of the arena, a plume of fire shot upward into the air, consuming the hulking beast, and detonating the plasma like bomb.

If I didn't know better I'd swear I heard the explosion through the scrying screen and in real life too. Perhaps it was only my imagination, but it seemed so. Our avarta had stopped running now, only moving just enough to avoid the fire that still jumped up from the ground in places.

The explosion had been massive, and a giant wall of flame was still shooting into the air. The smoke and dirt had obscured that entire side of the arena. Our avarta circled back and forth slowly, watching to see what would happen. The fire of the barrier died back down quickly, resuming its flickering line along the base. the smoke began to clear and we could all see a quivering figure within the smoke and dirt.

The big bastard staggered out of the ash cloud and I heard Hermione gasp in shock. both eyes on the left side were missing, as was the arm. Most of the skin was crispy, and the hair like bristles that covered its body were completely burned away. We could see bone poking through several of the wounds. Most of the teeth hand been blasted out of the left side of its mouth, and most of the bone on that side was visible as well. It looked like a smoking inferi. what a horrible thought that was. Inferi were nasty enough without adding in an avarta's natural strength and ferocity. I remembered the undead trolls we'd had to fight back on Earth, probably be a lot like that but worse.

He staggered toward our avarta, his mouth worked open and close as if he were trying to speak. The remaining eyes narrowed into hateful slits. You could practically see the anger and hatred bubbling off him in waves. I imagine that its hatred was the only thing keeping it alive at this point. Our avarta was still cautious, he hadn't let his guard down at all. The one armed avarta was quivering and shaking before he threw his head back and howled. The sound was stranger than normal, some of the air escaped via a hole in its neck. It began a stumbling run before picking up speed. We watched, dumbfounded as this thing found the strength to continue the fight. No human could have pushed that level of punishment aside, the behemoth should have been unconscious with shock, and on his way to the grave.

He jumped forward and swung with his one burnt arm. Our avarta avoided the blow, weaving out of the way of the slow and clumsy blows. He was playing now. He reached forward and stuck several fingers into one of the creature's chest wounds, and yanked backward, pulling a piece of charred meat with it. The big avarta screamed in pain, frustration, and rage. Our avarta jumped backward and brought the charred meat up to his lips before taking a bite, a wicked evil grin on his face.

The burned one sent out a gust of crimson energy from his mouth, the attack was sloppy, bits of energy leaked out of the side that lacked teeth, and several streams of the stuff escaped through holes within his muzzle. The victorious one ran forward next to the attack, along the blind side of his opponent, and drove one of the broken ends of his spike into the burned eye socket. The one armed and fried avarta jerked violently as the bladed end of the spike sunk deep into its head and made a mess of the interconnected nodes that acted as his brain. He twitched again, the crimson attack from his mouth stuttered and cut on and off momentarily before stopping completely. He took one trembling step forward and collapsed into the dirt, the impact of the fall drove the spike in even deeper.

Our avarta raised his hands into the air and roared, the crowd echoed him. The leader had been chosen.

Hermione and I glanced at each other at that final display. The sheer animal ferocity that went into the fighting was insane, but it showed time and again that they had the ability to fight tactically as well. That was ultimately how he'd won, not with strength or anger, but with strategy. She looked pale, suddenly frightened. I pulled her into my lap and held her.

"I'll be fine Hermione," I whispered to her, as my eyes stayed focused on the scrying screen, and my mind began to worry about my own coming fight, "I'll be just fine."

A/N;

Another chapter down, and not many to go now folks. I hoped everybody enjoyed the avarta battle royale. Just wanted to let you guys know, that after this one, there's approximately two chapters left to go. After that I'm going to be taking a break from the fanfiction stuff for a bit. Not too long mind you, I plan on coming back, but I've gotta take some time to work on some original stuff,

The poll will go up with the next chapter as to what I should do next, and I'll take the tally before the final chapter is posted, so that way I can let you all know what I'll be working on next.

Have a wonderful day,

Harkon.


	22. End of an Era

I wasn't sure what would happen next. The avarta I'd spoken to the night I killed the Oldfather never told me, nor I him, what exactly would be happening next. He'd won his trials, killed his opponents and feasted on the dead, though, Hermione and I neglected to keep watching at that point.

Should I go to them? Head off into the mountains and find whatever hut he'd be curled up in, healing from his wounds? Should I wait for him to appear before the village? Would he come straight from his last fight to this one? Or would he give himself time to recover? As much as I dislike the avarta, I was willing to give him time. We hadn't been attacked by any of them ever since that fateful battle lead by the Oldfather, the tipping point, that drove me to seek out his hiding spot and kill him. In the end I hadn't needed to worry.

Several days after the trials had concluded, Hermione and I were making our rounds about the Cradle when someone, a young woman by the name of Greece came running up to us. She'd been on the wall, performing guard duty, when an avarta had approached the gate and requested my presence.

"I nearly killed it then and there, but I remembered what you said, that this could happen, that I should find you instead." She was shaking, and rubbing at her elbow, where a metal arm was attached. "I almost did it anyway."

I nodded and squeezed her shoulder with a grim smile. "You did the right thing, This way, with a little bit of luck the fighting will end before anymore people get hurt."

She looked a little sour at that, and I could understand it. "After they killed so many of us, I just want to charge those mountains and kill them, kill them all." She hung her head at those words and Hermione moved to pull her in a hug. The young red head stiffened for a moment but melted into her quickly enough.

"I know, I've felt the same before, and not just with the avarta. We are too few to try such a thing. If we'd brought five thousand with us instead of the one thousand we managed to agree to come, we might have even tried it. I don't believe them to have great numbers, but they still far exceed our own. This will hopefully minimize the risk to the rest of everybody."

Greek nodded sadly and slowly pulled away from Hermione. "I left it waiting at the front gate, there are more guards ready to attack if it provokes them." I nodded in thanks and Hermione and I double timed it to the front gates. Shortly after returning to the Cradle from killing the Oldfather, I'd made sure to rework the translation spells woven into the cradle's defenses. Now anyone inside the wall could understand the avarta's rough and gravelly language.

We kept our eyes to the sky, just incase this was some sort of distraction or ruse. If they kept us busy out front and dropped another hundred fighters into our midst I'd destroy every last one of them.

The walk to the front was a quick one, I signaled one of the guards to open the gates, not completely, but just enough for Hermione and I to step outside. We made our way through the muck and mud, it had been raining for the last several days, and out into the open forest of Faye. It was a big bastard, on the taller end of the species from what I'd seen. It had been pacing back and forth, creating a track in the mud with its clawed feet.

The alienness of the avarta struck me again just then. Tall and broad, with a body covered in bristles and scales alike. You'd never guess how agile they were just by looking at them. They looked like great lumbering beasts, strong but slow. But the nickname I'd given them when I first saw them was true enough, strong and powerful as a bear, and fast and as cunning as a raptor. I'd fought both of those creatures before after all. Not many wizards could claim they'd killed a dinosaur.

I could feel my wild magic rear up in response to the sight. I was angry, my blood boiled at this thing that had caused so much hardship. The wild coursing through my veins was getting easier to control with time, it was a skill that I believed would take years yet to master. Perhaps it was something that couldn't be completely controlled, given the psychopathic tendencies it created within one's mind, but I could control it better now than I could have even a week ago. I was learning its tricks, and secrets. I let the impulse to let my skin erupt with viridian light fade and approached the agitated beast.

It turned to look at me and snarled a bit but didn't attack. Its lips quivered and all four eyes narrowed at the sight of me. These things had hatred woven into their very DNA, perhaps given the chance I should catch one and slice it open, just to see what made them the way they were.

I walked right up to it, just a few scant feet away and glared right back. "Something you lot needed then?"

The growl grew a tad louder, I could tell it was attempting to intimidate me, a being so much smaller than itself, so much weaker, at least in appearance. I grinned a grin without a drop of humor.

At my expression it seemed to relax a minute amount and then it grinned back, an acknowledgement of equality between us. If I'd allowed myself to be intimidated I have no doubt it would have attacked.

"Our new Father thirsts for your blood. He demands single combat, like you both agreed upon when you killed the Oldfather."

I nodded at that, it was what I was expecting after all. "When and where? Anytime, any place is fine with me." I gave it an easy going smile and crossed my arms, legs slightly spread.

This seemed to give it pause, the avarta simply weren't used to a weaker being not being scared of them. Of course, I wasn't really weaker. "At dusk, as the first sun vanishes below the horizon, and before the second one touches the ground. That will be the time of your death."

I actually laughed at that. "Today?" It nodded, seemingly amused at my own response. "And where will I be killing your master?"

It was its turn to laugh. I still had no idea if the beast was male or female. Even though most of them spent most of their time naked, I'd seen a few with bits of armor or simple wraps of skin around a shoulder or waist, there were no visible sex organs. That and they were all so fucking ugly to me I simply couldn't tell. Sexual dimorphism didn't seem to exist within the avarta.

"You are an interloper, a creature from the stars, thus, you have no home here, no place that you can take advantage of. You will fight In the Stilted Lands." It pointed a long clawed finger high and off to the left of the cradle. "A battleground will be built there. It will be easy enough to spot from the sky." It chuckled ruthfully at the idea that I could fly. "Bring watchers if you wish, the Father will consent to ten of your people to observe, more than that, and we cannot... guarantee their safety. The sight of your people drive us mad, the instinct to kill the lesser, the hunt and feast, is strong."

I paid that last bit no attention, simple intimidation techniques that wouldn't work on me or my beautiful wife. "And the agreement will be honored? No matter the outcome?"

It nodded again. "Those terms between you and the Father are set, no matter the outcome of the fight, there will be..." it made a face, as if it was trying to force out something foul, "peace between our people. We will not attack, unless you forfeit the fight and flee. Then the agreement will be broken, and your body and mind with it."

I laughed outright at that. "I don't run from a fight. Tell your Father I will be there, and tell him to be ready, I will not be merciful."

It grinned again and said nothing else, merely stalked off, back into the forest, and back to whatever it used to reach the Forest Lands.

2.

The next few hours involved Hermione and I talking together about what would happen next. We'd both agreed almost at once that we wouldn't be bringing the complete ten people, the less chance of blood shed breaking out the better. I wanted Arthur and Jean to show, if they consented. Both of them were tough and could appreciate a good fight. We briefly thought of bringing David and Lora, but decided against it. David might have been okay, and perhaps we'd still invite him, but Lora was a bit too squeamish for such things and we didn't want her to feel obligated to attend. A few of those that had come with us on our journey to the charyepchee would be allowed to attended, but beyond that we didn't want to push our luck.

The two of us set out to discuss this privately with those we decided to involve. We found Arthur outside his home playing with the two kids he and his mother had decided to help raise. Initially the two of them had shared a home, but now they both had their own dwellings, next door to each other. They shard a yard of sorts between them, a bit of ground that had been trampled to dirt and contained a few trees and bushes. We hadn't had the colonists on Faye very long yet, but already the paths between homes and the different buildings were well established. Thick dirt paths connected everything, from the sky it looked something akin to a lopsided spiderweb beaten into the ground. Arthur was outside playing with both children when we approached him. His mother was fixing lunch for everyone.

Arthur was still a little tender from his fight with the avarta. His arm was heavily bandaged, but he'd managed to keep it, which in actuality meant it would take longer to get him back to one hundred percent. We'd had plans to plant a potion ingredients garden soon, using seeds and plants we'd brought from Earth that were still in stasis, but the avarta had attacked just a few days before the project was due to get off the ground. It had been put on hold since then. Arthur had apparently been expecting us. He told the laughing children to head on in and wash up. "Mamaw Jean should just about have lunch ready for everybody. Go scrub up and I'll meet you two inside." They both hugged him and gave us shy smiles. I waved and grinned. Hermione did the same and I could almost feel the pang I knew she felt looking at the children. We'd tried several times over the years, but never managed any. We couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but from a few tests we'd run, It seemed the influx of power from the ward stone we'd received had made it impossible for us to have children, at least with each other, and that would have been the only option to us as far as we were concerned.

He walked up to the two of us and awkwardly stuck out a bandaged hand to shake but we pulled him into a hug instead, startling him and making him laugh a little. I pulled back and looked at him with a smile. "You're making an excellent dad you know that my friend?"

He blushed a little at that. "They make it easy, well for the most part. Two of the most loving kids I've ever met. Not that I knew a whole lot before coming here. What brings you two around? Not that I mind a surprise visit."

"Its time, we'll be having the fight today." He stiffened at that.

"So soon? I'd have thought that after their trials, he'd have at least wanted to heal completely first."

Hermione shrugged at those words. "We did too, and maybe he has, we still know so little about their capabilities," she glanced at me, "even though some of us are confident it won't matter much in the end."

Arthur grinned at that. "I've seen him fight before, I think he's earned a bit of confidence."

I laughed, if he only knew. "We came to talk to you because the avarta have sent down a messenger. It didn't stay around long, just told us what it needed to and was off again. But the fight will be in the Stilted Lands, today at dusk. We're allowed to invite ten guests. We don't plan on bringing that many, they had also mentioned how difficult it was for most of them to control themselves around us, but we did want a few witnesses. You and your mother were the first one's that popped into our heads."

Arthur was growing used to this. He had been surprised to be included so much early on, but he'd come to accept that we liked him, even if he couldn't figure out why. We couldn't help it honestly, anybody that reminded us of Ron or Daniel usually found a soft spot with us. My heart ached briefly for the thought of lost friends but I shook it away as nearly as quickly.

"So will you come and play cheerleader for the big oaf? Merlin knows the avarta will be cheering loudly enough as is."

"Absolutely, I don't know about me mum though. She's not nearly as interested in watching monsters being ripped to shreds as I am. I'll ask her though, we'll see about getting the kids watched for a bit. No way would I drag them to something so dangerous."

I nodded and thanked him. We let him get on with the rest of his evening. Our next stop were two different men we both wanted to invite along. Gregory was a big man, seemingly carved out of granite. Despite his size and strength, he had a rather gentle nature, and tended to be a bit clumsy to boot. It didn't take more than five minutes for him to agree to come. "Of course I will, I might not be more than moral support, but such things are important ya know? Remind Harry what we're fighting for." I grinned and clapped him on the arm, it was like slapping a slab of marble.

Our last stop was Steve. A tall blond man of slavic origin, Steve was one always ready for a rip roaring fight. Considering that, we found him on the far side of the fields, having a mock battle with five others. We stood on the sidelines for a while and watched them fight each other. It was a three on three fight and I grinned as I watched.

I had always taught them to practice their deadlier magic outside of training, they were only supposed to use nonlethal spells while doing drills like this. We watched red streaks from stunners and white bolts of stinging hexes fly back and forth for several minutes. Steve's team ultimately won the mock fight but it was a good show. I clapped loudly and enthusiastically as they finished up and finally noticed us.

Steve and the others looked over in surprise before walking over toward us. We talked for a bit and I let the others get back to their other duties so I could speak to Steve more privately. It didn't take anything to convince him, he just wanted to know if I'd tag him into the fight at some point.

I grinned at him. "You can be my second."

He frowned, like he half remembered the term from somewhere but wasn't sure. "Second?"

"Yeah, essentially if I'm incapacitated you get to step in and finish the fight on my behalf." He seemed excited about the idea until after I told him that seconds were good ideas incase one of the combatants were killed.

"Uh, you don't actually think that'll happen do you Harry?"

I smiled at him. "No, I don't think it will, but Hermione and I watched them fight each other to select a new leader, they're a brutal bunch of people." I tried to sound as if I were a bit worried. He paled significantly at that.

"Well I mean, I would love to, but I'm sure Hermione here would prefer to step up in case that happened." He glanced at her, nearly pleading with his eyes to say yes.

"Of course I will Steven, and don't worry, you can still be our third."

"Oh... so I'd step in if both you were..."

"Dead dear, if both of us were dead." Hermione had seemed to perfect a bit of a motherly voice at some point she could turn on some of the more rambunctious colonists. I called it her Molly voice. This seemed to both amuse and annoy her at the same time.

We both watched Steve swallow reflexively before straightening and nodding his head solemnly. "Of course, It would be an honor." I grinned at him and slapped him on the shoulder.

"I suggest you get a bite to eat and to rest for the rest of today, you might need your strength later. The fight is at sunset, we'll collect you round then." He nodded at that and hurried off before he could change his mind on the subject.

Hermione and I slowly made our way back to town after that. We had a few moments of peace and quiet to talk before announcing the plan to the rest of the colonists. "He's a good bloke, bit too serious though."

"Yes, I'm afraid we scared him a little."

I took her hand and shrugged. "I don't believe he has any real thing to worry about, if they manage to get through me than the agreement should still be in place."

"Harry, if they get through you, I'm killing them all." I looked at her in worry.

"Mione... no genocide remember?"

"Then you better not lose lover boy."

"Yes Ma'am." The two of us continued on chatting about simpler times until we made it to the center of the cradle. I cast a sonorous charm on myself and asked everyone to gather in the middle of town.

I could never tell if they liked things being done this way, or hated it. I scanned the faces of the inhabitants of the Cradle. There was always a healthy mix. People looking happy, or excited, then those that seemed to be grumbling constantly, fussing about needing to get back to work. And now... there were sad faces mixed in as well.

I could technically be heard from just about anywhere in the colony now. It was a niffty little trick I'd picked up some time ago. Couple the sonorous charm with a voice throwing spell and viola. I'd seen wizards throw their voices for miles that way, I could manage a thousand yards without much effort. Even though they all new that, most of them showed up still. I was surprised at that, I figured it wouldn't take long before most of them stopped coming.

"Thank you all, I won't take up any more of your valuable time and get straight to it. I'll be facing the new leader of the avarta today. A fight to the death I believe. Anyway, I wanted you all to know that I'll probably be late for dinner." I grinned and told them when, and that only a few people could actually come with us, but that there would be screens set up in the common areas. Everyone would get a chance to watch.

"Good luck Harry!"

"No mercy Father!"

"Kick its arse!"

I blinked in mild surprise at the explosion and encouragement they shouted out. the energy levels in the cradle had just quadrupled. They all thought I was invincible, even after seeing me hurt. I smiled at them all and lifted both hands. They cheered, it was insane. I chuckled and tried to speak again.

"Thank you, thank you all so much. Your confidence in me warms my heart. Now, as I've said, I've taken up too much of everyone's time as is. I'll see you lot at dinner." There was one more cheer and I laughed before shutting off the sonorous charm. The people began to disperse within Cradle.

3.

Hermione and I took a long shower in our private bathroom. Enjoying the solitude of being just with one another. We needed moments like that, to just block out everything else for a little while, and let us be with us alone.

We had a late lunch, light food that wouldn't weigh us down. Hermione gave me a back rub, and I returned to favor afterword.

We took a nap.

The two of us meditated together for a while after that, something we didn't do often enough. and before long, it seemed that the time had come. We began a routine of stretches, and got dressed in light clothes that breathed and moved freely. I wouldn't be wearing armor at all during the fight, so I was going to make myself flexible instead. I wasn't all that worried, I thought things would go as I planned for them to. I was still being careful though, preparing throughout the day for this fight. It might not be the hardest one I'd had, but the fate of mankind could potentially depend on it. Of course, Hermione would kill them all if he somehow got in a lucky hit.

With out anymore fanfare we stepped outside. Jean, Arthur, Gregory and Steve were all there. So all together there'd be six of us. That was as close to the ten they allowed as I wanted to get.

I smiled at everyone as they saw us. "Your guys ready for this?" I got nods and smiles all around. They were taking this privilege very seriously. No whoops or hollering here. "Alright, good then. Hermione and I will be flying and will pull you lot behind us." I used a spell the attach Steve and Gregory to each other and then me with an invisible tow line. Hermione did the same for Jean and Arthur.

We could have levitated them, sure, but this way was a lot more fun. We rose into the air, waving down at the colony below us. I yelled down at the four of them. "You guys are going to follow behind, you'll follow my exact course as I fly. So just relax, and try not to piss yourselves." With that, Hermione and I shot off like fighter jets.

We took off straight up into the air, the screams and laughter of our passengers filled our ears. We broke through the cloud barrier and corkscrewed quickly, knocking all the water off of us. I did a slow loop for them, they seemed less nervous with the cloud coverage just below, perhaps their brains interpreted it as ground, and choose to see it as a much smaller drop compared to what they'd just been through.

I knew at once where this fight would be held. It was several miles down the ridge line from the colony. Trees had been felled to mark out a wide circle and fires were burning all around the edges in smoky clumps. I cast the translation spell over everyone present and we slowly made out way through to air and toward the fires.

There were avarta scattered about as well, some of them arguing and fighting, a few working to til the ground between the fires. Some others merely stood and watched everything happen. A small hut had been erected on the opposite side of the clearing. I could make out several of the avarta pointing to us as we approached. A couple of them peeled off and headed for the hut. Must be going to talk to their boss. We touched down lightly about a hundred yards in front of the hut. Hermione and I stood tall and straight, unafraid of these cruel beings. I was happy to see our witnesses putting on a brave face. It couldn't be easy after the fighting just days before. I felt Hermione reach out and squeeze my hand and I smiled at her as I squeezed it back. The avarta had started talking amongst themselves now. Several of them were sizing us up, I actually saw one crack its knuckles as it glared at us. I grinned and gave it a little wave. That did more to throw it off balance than snarling back ever would.

The six of us plodded along and around the edge of the ring. We walked slowly, and gave my opponent plenty of time to reveal himself. He stepped out just as we reached the front of the hut.

He looked different. His shoulder still looked tender, but it was mostly healed, but now, the majority of his quills were missing. I could sense something different about him. I switched to mage site and narrowed my eyes. I knew my eyes changed when I used mage sight, every magicals did. They took on a characteristic twinkle look, like tiny stars were reflected in the eye. The avarta before me noticed this but didn't comment.

"You've changed." I could see arcs of new magic swirling around and inside of him that weren't there in any of the other avartas. I had a suspicion as to what it meant.

He nodded at me, seeming to be more amused than anything else. "New leaders are possessed of an element. It is our right, and expected of us, to channel one force of nature. The Oldfather wielded fire as easy as breath, I have chosen something different." I nodded. I didn't believe it would make much difference in the long run.

I motioned to the humans around me. "These as the ones I would bring with me. Be wary of my wife, she is particularly ferocious."

He threw his head back and laughed at that, a deep cold thing, that laugh. "I would expect no less from one mated to you beast."

It was my turn to grin. "What do they call you, creature?"

He ran a hand across his chest, sparks of electricity danced from his fingertips to the muscles there. "I am known as Valdor, the Newfather they call me. And what of you, monster from the stars, what is your moniker?"

I thought about that for a moment. So many names, so many titles through the eons. "I am Razael, the Godslayer." The grin it gave me was vicious and appreciative.

"The Godslayer... perhaps today you will get to add another god to your collection, or perhaps you have finally met one that will spell your undoing."

I smiled up at him and chuckled softly. "You aren't the first one I've met that's claimed to have climbed to god hood, and I doubt you'll be the last. This is your venture Valdor, when do we begin?"

He looked out across the landscape and the sky, judging the suns as they fell farther in the sky. "Soon. You may retire to my hutch and use it to prepare. Your people will be left alone. I made it clear to my own, that any violation of the rules I sat forth, would be met with dire consequences. The ring will be guarded against interference soon enough, then we may begin."

I nodded and proceeded to follow him inside the small hut. The floor was covered with a thick even coat of leaves and it was incredibly warm inside. I'd kissed Hermione goodbye, promising to see her soon, and left her to organize the rest of us humans. They'd behave themselves, being outnumbered a hundred to one would ensure that if nothing else. I stripped off my top and began to stretch. I loosened all my muscles, in a way I normally didn't get to before a fight. It wouldn't hurt me any to be loose and relaxed. Valdor hummed quietly at the sight of the scars that covered my body.

"You are a true warrior, and have seen much battle."

"I was fighting long before your great grandfather's walked to surface of this world." I closed my eyes and sat down, allowing my mind to wander and soak in my surroundings with my other senses. This would let me keep fighting if I lost my eyes.

I heard the avarta chuckle. "You do not look so old. Many of your people show signs of aging greater than your own. In fact, you appear quite young to me."

I didn't answer at first, I waited in the darkness that lingered behind my eyes. Finally I decided to speak, I saw no reason to not be cordial, even if we would soon be fighting one another to the death.

"I am a cursed creature Valdor, I have lived many lives. When my people die, that is the end for us. Our minds fade from our bodies as they slowly turn to dust, but I have never been allowed to know such peace. If I die, I awaken again, in a new a body, and in a new place, but still very much myself. I have worn this skin many times, over eons." My eyes snapped open and they glowed a faint green. "Death does not frighten me, because this would not be the first time I have died."

I wondered then, what would become of me if I truly did die this time. Was Tom, my oldest enemy correct? Would I appear on a dead irradiated lump of rock, lightyears away, only to die again? Would I be reborn on Faye, in some future generation? Or perhaps it would truly be the end of me, perhaps, now with my homeworld gone, this strange, broken up existence would be over. I have never feared death, but the thought of leaving Hermione behind, or living some future life without her, filled me with dread, and a pang that had never been there before. I sighed and pushed such thoughts out of my head. There was no need to worry about something I could not hope to control.

"Such a strange broken creature you are... human." The word sounded odd coming out in its gravelly voice. "I made my first kill in my fifth year on this world, and it was glorious. My people have always thrived on combat, even if it is just amongst ourselves. Given enough time, your people would make worthy enemies."

I chuckled, such words were the highest praise an avarta could give. "We are not enemies you would want. We fought each other so much we nearly eradicated ourselves. We do not give up, and will continue to fight, down to the last child. In that way, our people aren't so different." He hummed thoughtfully at that, and the two of us grew quiet again.

Time stretched on and we didn't speak again until an avarta came to the doorway of the hut and began to speak.

"Newfather, it is time. The first sun has touched the distant ground." With those words I opened my eyes again and took a deep breath, filling myself to the brink with air before releasing it again.

I stood and stretched once more before turning to Valdor. "Lets get this started."

He gave something like a short bow, perhaps the equivalent of a nod, and lead the way outside. I followed.

4.

The crowd was loud and boisterous as we exited the hut and headed for the circle. Cheers and jeers alike were thrown about by everyone. We walked right passed the small group of humans I had brought with me. I stole a kiss from Hermione on my way by.

"I love you Harry, good luck." She kissed me one last time before letting me go with a face of regret, she was really rethinking allowing me doing this right now, but we had already decided that this was the best way, no sense in having seconds thought now.

"I love you too beautiful, with all my heart. I'll see you soon gorgeous." I hugged her one last time and broke apart with a kiss before I stepped over and into the ring. I felt the tingle of wards as I passed the line in the dirt. They were crude but powerful, and should stop any sort of spell from flying through from either side. I spied the heavily scarred avarta from the choosing ceremony nearby, its hammer was at the ready, the meal plate rested nearby on legs.

Valdor and I spread out and ended up on opposite sides of the ring before we turned and faced each other. We nodded at each other and I could see him practically itching to get started. I felt it as well, bloodlust rushed through me like adrenaline. I had been holding in a lot of hate directed toward the avarta for some time now, and it was eager to get loose. The scarred avarta began to speak.

"And here we are, the interloper, versus our Newfather. It doesn't look like much does it?" The crowed roared and jeered. "Well, this one alone has killed many of us in recent times, this is the beast that killed the Oldfather. The Newfather, Valdor, had agreed to single combat, to see if the beast's people is worthy of the moniker equal. Let us not stall any longer. The... rules are simple. The last one breathing is the victor." It raised the hammer high over head. "Let the fight, begin!" He brought the hammer down, and struck home.

Valdor waisted no time. I twisted sideways to avoid the burst of lightning that leapt from his hands. It was thick and powerful, causing the hair on my arms to rise and dashed away to avoid the blast. I felt my muscles tense as primordial magic flooded my veins in response. I threw blasting curses, beams of pure heat, and piercers with reckless abandon. The avarta twisted and danced dodging nearly all of them. A few clipped him on a limb but none of the wounds were serious. He returned fire with slashes of crimson energy and more lightning. I conjured a sword of viridian energy and chopped the slashes away from me, a transfigured rod of metal caught the lightning and redirected it into the ground harmlessly.

Valdor picked up speed, flinging more spells, waves, beams and piercers of crimson energy at me so fast the average human would only see brief streaks of color. Primordial magic pushed my reactions far beyond that of a normal person and allowed me to avoid the majority. A slash nicked my leg, and a piercer grazed a shoulder but the wounds were superficial, a sting that I instinctually suppressed. He attempted to wrench my lightning rod from the ground but I wouldn't allow him.

I caused the ground to rise up as a giant fist behind him and clocked him good across the side of the head. The avarta went skidding through the dirt and I didn't let up, pouring on the magic and casting spell after spell. a shredder caught him in the ribs as he tumbled and twisted in midair and sent him spinning anew. He landed hard on hands and feet and slid, sending up a plume of dust. The fresh wound did little to slow him and he dived and rolled sideways to avoid more.

Valdor conjured a blood red shield of sorts, a type of magic I'd never seen the avarta use, that caught several of my spells and gave him a moment to catch his bearings. Perhaps he'd been experimenting and had copied a shield he'd seen a human use. At any rate it was rather effective. I conjured a cloud of needles and sent them swarming around the alien beast. They pinged off his shield but more than a dozen made it around back and burrowed into his skin. The avarta roared in pain and frustration. Valdor sent lightning shooting out from his body in all directions, causing him to glow briefly and used the energy to dislodge most of my needles. i back peddled and ducked under more slashes of crimson. A wall of dirt was raised between us that I used to block more attacks and considered my options.

He was good, far more tactful than the average avarta I'd fought in the past, there were more brains and less instinct in his fighting style. A lobbed glob of magical plasma detonated on my earthen shield and sprayed dirt everywhere. A bit got in my eyes and blinded me for a moment, I kept moving, blinking furiously and cursed as a sharp pain glanced off my collar bone. Something had struck home and the pain was exemplary.

I doused my face with water to wash out the grit and dived sideways, I performed a hand spring with my good arm and landed in a crouch. I created a golden siege shield designed to withstand damn near anything and took a second to examine my collar. I don't believe it was broken, but I could see a glint of bone in the fresh gouge of flesh. I cast a flesh knitting charm over the wound, cinching it shut painfully but stopping the bleeding, luckily whatever had caught me didn't appear to be a cursed spell. I wasn't even sure the avarta had that type of magic, it didn't match with their style well.

I glared at the avarta and I could see him grinning ferally as he cast spell after spell. I tweaked my shield so instead of deflecting magic it would absorb it. I waited a moment and watched as the shield glowed brighter and brighter with each impact. When it was at maximum capacity, something that only took a few seconds with the powerhouse beating into it, I twisted the shield inside out and compressed all that stored energy into a sphere. I launched the highly volatile ball of magic back at him. He cast another shield, and when the globe struck, it detonated. I raised a wall of thick stone to block the worst of the backlash and felt the ground shake at the explosion. A small mushroom cloud rose into the air from the point of impact. I ran sideways and left the shield where it was, with hope he'd think I was still behind it before the smoke cleared.

The blast had shattered his shield and sent him flying backward. He'd rolled, smoking, to the edge of the ring and lay there. I watched, wondering if the fight was over, but no, I could see him stirring already. I shot piercers at the figure rising in the gloom and frowned as they passed straight through, it must have been an illusion. I turned to look for him, my sense already opening to search out in all directions when his attack struck.

pain lanced up my body, starting somewhere in my back. The bastard had struck me with lightning while my back was turned. My muscles seized and spasmed and I could barely move. I heard him laughing now and I turned jerkily. I could hardly move, but I got around well enough to get a look at him. The detonated blast had done a number on him. Several fingers had been scorched off one hand, and that entire side of his body had a baked and crispy look to it. Both of his eyes on the left were closed tight, and blood ran in small rivulets everywhere.

He held up his burned arm and cast lightning through it as well. The pain doubled and I completely lost the ability to move then. Searing heat filled my entire being and I knew my clothes had begun to smoke. I could hear Hermione distantly screaming my name. I watched as he came closer, and transferred the lightning from his burned hand to his good one, doubling the flow from a single source. I'd been stupid, fooled by an illusion, and not a very good one at that. Overconfident in the idea that the avarta weren't subtle enough to use magic for anything other than attacking. But not this one, this one was different. He was smart, cunning in a way his brothers and sisters weren't. He came closer to me, still holding the lightning, and created a glowing white blade from the same element in his burned hand.

Valdor stalked closer until he stood right before me, and without hesitating, without stopping to banter, or waste time, without giving me much of a chance to think of an escape, raised the blade to strike me down...

A/N

I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter, and are looking forward to the conclusion. Expect the last one no less than a week from now, and perhaps even sooner, so keep your eyes peeled if your'e interested.

I don't usually respond to reviews in a chapter, but this reviewer was a guest so I'll answer real quick

The Hermit: well, Faye is 48 light years away from Earth, and the closest planet with life, the could have spent lifetimes searching for another, and of course, if the planet was safe, it would have been a rather short, boring story.

The poll I've mentioned the last few chapters will be up soon, go vote to let me know what you'd like to see me work on next.

Cheers,

Harkon


	23. Conclusion

There was a good reason I didn't want to do what I was about to do. It was to new, and strange... and difficult to control. I had been caught out, taken by surprise in a way I hadn't expected. Perhaps I was getting soft in my old age. I'd been fighting for so very long at this point. Sure, there were periods of rest and peace, but I always found myself fighting again. Was it just because I was human? Were my people destined to fall into some form of combat, either with each other, or some other species? Were we simply too violent for our own good?

I strove for peace. That was my entire crusade on Earth, peace for the magical world. From the very beginning, the first life I knew, growing up within the fire light of a cave, in some distant land that would have more names that any one person could remember, rebranded time and again as some tribal king or warlord invaded and conquered. I always had wanted peace. There was a balance to me as well, a man that stood as my opposite and equal, someone responsible for my death more times than I would care to mention. But even He was gone now, I'd finally managed to lock him away, someplace so far from everything else that he could never be a threat to me again. The only one that even had the slightest of clues as what it was like to be me.

And now, with what I planned to do, something I hadn't even told my own wife about yet, something I wasn't sure I could tell her about. I don't know if I could go through with it, even though my very nature pushed me to. To live without her again now, would I still be me? Had I warmed enough to hold onto this slice of humanity that I cherished? Could she go with me? Would I let her? These thoughts tormented me. I feel like she would, eventually, if only to be with me, but would she grow to resent me? To hate me for leading her into this mess I had vague plans for? Would it be better to leave her behind? Or perhaps abandon this quest and live my life, as peacefully as I could? I simply don't know. But now, with this blade forged of lightning and hatred looming over me, threatening this life from a stupid mistake of my own, I resolved myself, I would tell her, I owed her that, and to not tell her, I feared that would ultimately spell my doom one way or another. I am so very old, the world moves so differently for me than it does everyone else. I see patterns in the time stream, events repeating, even if they're separated by thousands of years, there were always patterns. Now, the patterns were new, and this was my first time through the cycle of them. Perhaps, life had more surprises in store for me. But to stay, and try to live, or leap back into the void and stars, to chase monsters? Could I? But how? To leap blindly would be failure, and that I couldn't stand for, not now. Decisions, decisions. A choice, that for now, would have to wait.

The pain vanished, the paralysis faded away as I lifted my hand upward. My skin was gone, vanished into the green storm of glowing power that made up my being now. And I caught the blade. Such a strange thing, to hold a blade of lightning in one's hand. Your body expects it to burn, to tingle and fry your nerves to little screaming crispy things. but it does not. At least not while I'm like this. I look up at him, and watch as his four eyes widen slowly, or at least slowly to me. I smile, something I doubt he can see through the swirl of energy that coats me now.

With a single quick motion, I pull the blade away and push forward with a fist, burying it in his gut. The world speeds back up as Valdor is sent backward with enough force and speed to break the sound barrier. The boom that echoes around the crowd Is enough to cause the avarta to cover their ears and growl. I watch with mild detached amusement as the fly that thought he could best the newspaper flew backward and crashed into the barrier that kept out the others. There is no burst of fire, merely a crunch of breaking bone at the impact.

I study the blade of lightning for a moment in my hands, paying Valdor little attention. If he lives it will be some time before he regains his footing. It is a strange thing, this bolt of static electricity and I wonder if I can copy it. I crush it in my fist, causing it to break apart and scatter in dozens of smaller bolts. I raise my other hand, and create a blade of lightning of my own, this one glowing green. It is nearly identical in shape and design, and it feels the same. I let the blade fade away and turn to my opponent. I can sense that he still lives, and I wonder if he's struggled to his feet yet, or if he even can.

I can see him struggling from here. He's managed to get a leg underneath him, and both hands rest on the ground. His breathing is hard and blood leaks and dribbles from his maw. I walk toward him and kneel down in front of him.

"Your biggest mistake, was thinking that we were equal. When the truth is, you are so far below me that you aren't worth my time."

I can hear a growl forming low in the back of his throat. It sounds wet and crackly, the bubble of blood that forms of the corner of his mouth pops and a drop of it sizzles and evaporates as it tries to land on me.

"You... were not this... strong before."

"Yes, I was. In fact, I would have never had to use this form if I hadn't gotten sloppy. If I had paid just a bit more attention, it would have never been needed. You are good, I give you that, the illusion was a stroke of genius I never expected from an avarta, but you must understand something. If I am pushed passed the brink, I always find a way to push back. The one time you saw this form, I was already severely injured, from an accident of all things. I held up my hands to look at them. "This power takes a toll on you. If I hadn't already been injured, I would have destroyed you all, much faster. But now, I've had time to heal, more time to train my mind and thoughts to handle this new gift magic has granted me. You never really had any kind of chance."

He was breathing harder now, chest heaving and straining. I could see the burned muscles and skin tense and I wondered then, was he about to attack? Would he still try to kill me even after he saw that it was hopeless? I suppose he would, it was in his nature after all, and it is so very difficult to go against one's nature.

I could almost see the attack before it happened. His skin ignited in white light, I grinned as I felt the buzz of electricity dance across his skin, feeding him, and healing him to a degree and it engulfed him. He was using the Oldfather's trick now, but instead of fire, his body was coated with lightning. The punch was as quick as a bolt of the aforementioned element, and I caught it easily enough. My power is different from this warping of the elements the avarta use. They use fire, or lightning, and perhaps other elements as well, but I was simply magic, with none of the restraints of channeling the elements. He threw a punch with his other hand and I caught that as well. He stood as quickly as he could, fast enough that most couldn't see exactly how slow it really was. He pushed against me, attempting to knock me over, and I let him push me a few feet so he could stand.

My arms held strong, I felt no real strain, then again in such a form I could feel so little it was hard to tell. I pushed back, a show of strength, and made him stumble and nearly fall again. He opened his mouth and launched a bolt of lightning at me from point blank range, but I still had time to move out of the way. I ducked down and released his hands before darting off to the right. The bolt shot forward harmlessly and dissipated against the wards keeping outsiders safe.

I spoke again. "Its a pity really. your people hold much strength, so much potential. If you could only lean to curb your more violent tendencies..." He turned and fired more lightning. I vanished in a flash of combat apparation and reappeared behind him. "...You could be so much more. Perhaps if you can't learn on your own, you can be taught." I punched him in the side of the head and sent him reeling. It wasn't much of a hit, nothing compared to the force I'd used against him minutes before, but he was weak now, and stumbled anyway.

Valdor snarled in rage and spun, sending waves of attacks and bolts of lightning toward me. I weaved between them, deflected several others with glowing hands, and completely ignored a few of the lightning bolts. They filled me with an odd buzzing hum, not pain. Nor did they freeze my muscles, but I suspected I might be sore when I let this power return to where it comes from.

He was enraged now, beyond comprehension and reason. He ran at me, lightning dancing across his form, meaning to rip me to pieces with his bare hands. I raised my arm and stuck out a single finger. The blast of energy I released was small, merely a spark from the tip, but it was concentrated and condensed. The beam I let loose shot faster than the eye could see and caught him in the shoulder with enough force to spin him around and drop him back off of his feet.

"You wanted this fight too soon. You are not yet acclimated to your new power. If you had waited, healed and trained this ability... perhaps you would have stood a better chance of not embarrassing yourself." I was speaking softly while I walked slowly toward him, quiet enough that only he could hear me. The crowd outside was going insane, I suspected the howls of the avarta could be heard from the cradle. He twisted and writhed in the dirt before rolling over and pushing himself up on hands and his good arm. The other, the one I struck and had been burned to a crisp, hung dead and limp at his side. "Far to eager, and not near enough patience. Do you see now, the folly of this venture? That in reality you had no real chance? The Oldfather was just that, old, experienced, and not afraid to fight dirty. I had to kill him twice to make it stick, but dead he is. I am not a god, yet I am far above anything you hope to be, do you still hold the belief that you have ascended? That you have reached out and above and assumed the mantle of a deity?"

The wild was aching for death. It wanted me to shut my mouth and silence this insolent child for good. Wanted me to end him as I had so many others, but I kept it still and held it in check. This power was in many ways like a child with its newness, eager, stubborn, and willful. But I was an old hand at controlling such unruliness.

Valdor did not speak at first, he merely sat there, shivering and panting. I walked right up to him and crouched down in front of him. I ignored the crowd, calling for blood and death, for they were mere children as well, children that had suffered under the hand of a cruel father for far to long.

He looked up at me and I could see defeat swimming in his eyes, pain, and yes the ever present hatred. But I wondered then, could that hatred be unlearned? Could it be expunged from those eyes and replaced with something... tamer? It was not a thought I had considered before. I found it odd that i was thinking it now.

"What do you want, Valdor? Do you wish to die now? will you try to strike me down again? Must we adhere to these old rules of yours, that one of us most be victorious, and the other a mere husk to be burned or buried? I care not for such practices. Humans can be vicious, monstrous even, but even we did not kill those unable to defend themselves. Most of us anyway."

I was quiet then, and waited for a response. I could practically feel Hermione's eyes burrowing into me, trying to read my thoughts and figure out what the hell I was doing. She was worried, and I knew that, but this was a chance, an opportunity. I had made friends with the charyepchee easily. This would be harder, but with the right... guidance, the avarta could grow to be something better.

He did not answer me right away, did not say a word. I saw his face tense, a snarl attempted to make its way onto his face, but it faded just as quickly. He was tired. So many fights to the death in such a short amount of time could do that.

"Strike me down now, demon, or my people will do it for you once you leave, these are our rules, our law, only the strongest may lead, only the strongest prevail, if I am not the strongest, then I am mere food for the worms."

I looked into the cold eyes, once that had never experienced much joy or love outside combat. "I may be older than your species Valdor, why should I be subject to the whims of children on the playground? Such rules are fickle, short lived things. They change and shift as the games the children play change. These ancient laws of yours mean very little to me. I agreed to this, to protect my own people, who are also children in my eyes. You claimed to want this contest, to see which of our people were the better, or if perhaps we had earned the title of equal. in many ways humans are equal to avarta, in magical power, and in the past probably cruelty. But you must understand, I am not like the other humans. The grow up, they age and eventually they'll die, to be replaced by new humans. I do not age, I will not die. Even if I leave this world for a thousand years, I could return, and be just as I am now. This was not a contest of equals, but a child fighting against one far older and more cunning than he is. I do not wish to mock you, I merely speak the truth. So I ask again, is there no hope for you and your people? Can the rules not be broken, or changed? Must it go on like this, or can something new emerge, something better?"

He was silent again, and I could hear the avarta sneering and yelling angrily now, demanding blood and a fight, that's what they were here for after all. I narrowed my eyes and stood. I raised a single hand, palm flat and pointed down. I ignored the ward that should have kept out all inside magic, and pushed my hand down slowly. Every avarta in the crowd, several hundred of them, felt their legs buckle as I pushed them, gently but firmly, down onto their hands and knees. These people had no defensive magic to speak of, beyond these basic wards that were easy to work around. They were strong in offensive magic, but weak in many other areas. It was child's play really, I imagine a normal wizard could have managed something similar with enough training and energy. Finally after that display of strength they grew quiet. I could see my human companions still standing and watching. A few of them were dumbstruck at the display, but it was a simple enough task. A trick and application of power, nothing more.

I crouched again next to the injured Valdor. He had looked up and around at the quiet that engulfed the clearing now, his good eyes open in shock. "You've been playing with us, this entire time. Even when we fought you in your home, you were just playing with us."

"My power is unique, strange, this form changes how the mind works, it thirsts for death and chaos, and is not something to use without good cause. When your people attacked mine, I was injured, angry, and wanted to hurt them. But my own people were mixed in. I had to temper my power, or risk injuring them as well. Here, my people amount to a handful, and are easy enough to work around. I could kill the lot of them right now. A twist of my wrist and hundreds of necks would be broken. I am stronger, superior in your eyes, according to your laws, not only is it my right to do so, but must be done. So do I do it? Is that what you truly want?"

I had his attention now, he was finally listening and willing to let go of a bit of that stubbornness. "...No."

I nodded, good. "This is what's going to happen Valdor. I am going to let you live, and you will leave my people be. When I came to this world, I vowed I wouldn't commit genocide, not again. and I have tempered my power and strength since I have arrived. I have let myself be injured, instead of just flatly killing everything that has threatened me. I have tried to give this world a chance. I want to become a part of it, not rule over it. I am very old, and this new game has been interesting, but my people are few. I came here, for them. I brought them here to give them a chance at growing and flourishing again and to be better than they were. They will get that chance. And they can do it, even if there are avarta in the mountains above, because the avarta are going to leave them alone." My eyes found the sky and they narrowed. "There are far worse monsters in this universe than your people, Valdor, one of them nearly killed this entire world eons ago, but your very planet protected you from it. Had it not, this place would have been very different when I arrived. If the humans can learn to leave their hatred and prejudices behind, then so can the avarta. Your people will learn, that life is about living, and not about death and hatred. If they cannot, then they will ultimately destroy themselves." I stood then, and I knew that every avarta within the crowd had heard my words, I spoke loud enough for them to on purpose.

"I know you all heard that. Show me, show someone better than you, something you value above everything else, that you can be a better people. We humans are few, but so are the avarta. I doubt there are that many more of you as opposed to us. You have a Newfather, I suggest, you take up a new way as well." None of them spoke, still kneeling in the dirt as they were. "If you kill your leader, and continue on the same path, then nothing will stop your destruction. You'll do it to yourselves, I won't even have to lift a finger." I released some of the power I used to hold them in place and watched as they slowly rose up. Now they just felt heavy instead of crushed.

I turned back to look at Valdor one last time. He was breathing hard and still on his hands and knees. It was hard to read his facial expressions with the burns. I knew a bit about avarta body language from my time within the Oldfather's head, but he was a difficult one to read. "Heal, and think about what has happened here today. Perhaps a bit of mercy is what you needed to see the error of your ways."

I turned away from him then and was about to make my way out when he spoke. "It is... not that easy. My people have always been this way, you ask us... to go against our own nature."

"Your nature is self destructive, its this, or eventual death." I turned away from him again and started walking toward my wife. I had my eyes locked with hers and she was smiling. I smiled back, even though you couldn't tell, I hadn't let the wild go yet. Her expression changed suddenly, growing dark and frowning. She opened her mouth to yell but it was too late. A white blade of lightning exploded out of my chest with a sense of intense pressure. There was no pain, no blood, just a splash of viridian energy at the wound that quickly dissipated once it left my body. I staggered slightly and looked down at the blade. I felt a coldness settling within me then as the avarta spoke within my ear.

"This is my people's way, we agreed to a fight to the death," he jammed the blade in deeper and I grasped the sword, preventing him from sliding it in anymore, "and death is what we shall have."

My eyes narrowed, the wild was screaming in rage, angry that I had suppressed its nature, angry that I had let this happen, but mostly angry at the avarta, how dare it harm me? This insignificant ant that I had shown mercy to. How. Dare. It. I spoke three words in a voice I barely recognizable as my own. "So be it."

I gripped the blade of the sword tightly in my hands, and rammed it backward, out of my body and into Valdor's chest. The handle ripped free of his grasp and slammed into him hard enough to knock him backward. I reached behind myself and pulled the sword the rest of the way out before turning. the wild ignored injuries, it shut that part of the brain off, along with some others. I glanced down at myself, there was still no blood, just a thin slit in the viridian energy. The inside of the slit was featureless, like the rest of me. I expected the power to begin to fade now, but for some reason it didn't. This injury seemed to spur it on instead. I wondered if my heart had been punctured, but that wasn't important right now. The important thing was putting this dog in its place. I stalked forward and landed a blow across its face, the hit hard enough to send Valdor into the dirt. I stood over it now and lifted its own blade high.

"I show you mercy, and you stab me in the back? My patience has limits, and it is now out. You have shown me, that you cannot learn, or think beyond the moment." I looked out over the rest of the avarta then, "perhaps I will end the rest of them once I'm done with you."

I raised the blade high and drove it down, burying it deep in his chest. The avarta gasped and twitched, writhing on the ground at the wound. He coughed thick ropes of blood up. It groaned and looked at me before grinning. "I... was wrong... I did not ascend to godhood... but at least... I got to... fight one... before my death..." He breathed his last.

The crowd was silent for a moment, and the wild roared for their blood. A scream came out of the avarta, a primal roar that many of them took up there were shouts and screams.

"Oathbreaker!"

"Merciful!"

"Deciever!"

Along with many other names and chants were forming in the crowd. the old scarred avarta had whipped them into a fury, and the shield was dropped. Hundreds of them began to rush me then. I narrowed my eyes and looked at Hermione. The avarta had completely forgotten about the other humans in their rage at me, even though I had ended up doing what they wanted. It seemed they no longer cared. I raised and threw my voice so only she could hear me. "Shield them, I love you, please shield them." I could see tears in her eyes but she nodded and golden light sparkled across her skin as she formed a honey colored shield around the other humans there. I could see them yelling and pounding on the shield. I turned away, and narrowed my eyes.

I waited, until they were right before me, waited until I could have reached out and touched the closest of them... then I detonated.

2.

Stupid man, such a stupid man! He couldn't do this! He just couldn't! I watched helplessly as they surrounded Harry, and leapt at him. There was a flash of green, that same beautiful color he turned whenever that crazy power within him came out, and he exploded. I cried and fell to my knees and the blast expanded rapidly and engulfed every avarta that had attacked him. It swelled up and kicked dirt and rock everywhere, the ground shook with the force and the heat was incredible. It was like standing next to a nuclear bomb as it detonated. I cried out at the force that bore down on my shield as I desperately tried to keep it together, and save those we'd brought with us.

Harry liked to say I was as strong as he was, but I'd never have been able to pull something like that off. It was all I could do to shield against it. The blast pushed us, our little bubble of protection slid backward across the ground and through the dirt. It cracked in several places but I repaired it just as fast, doing everything I could to hold it together. The blast seemed to go on forever, the great plume of dust and smoke that rose into the sky formed a mushroom cloud and I was equal parts impressed and terrified.

I dropped the shield as soon as the energy dissipated enough. It felt like forever had passed, but I suspected that only a minute or so had went by. I was running and screaming, and then flying forward, straight into the smoke. I had to get to him, had to see.

I pushed the dust and smoke away with magic and cleared the air, and there he was. He was crouched in the center of the blast, a ring of earth so hot it formed glass around him. His skin sparked green and flashed and flickered. Green bolts of lightning danced across his glowing form. He was shuddering, trying to hold onto the power. He knew what would happen the second it left him. He looked up and saw me, and that beautiful green light Harry called the Wild finally faded away.

He yelled in pain and grabbed at his chest the second it was gone, blood spurted out of the wound and he nearly collapsed. I ran to him, ignoring the blistering heat and caught him before he could completely fall.

My magic reached out and cradled him wrapped him up close as it liked to do. "Harry, hold on okay? Look at me, its going to be fine, you're going to be fine." I pumped magic into the wound, forced as much as I could through myself and into him. "You're going to be fine." Blisters appeared on my knees from the heat but I didn't feel it. The very air around us was warped from the heat.

Distantly I was aware of the others approaching and coming up short at the ring of glass. Someone began to rapidly cool the ground so they could get closer. I looked him in the eyes as I held him, and continued to fill him with my magic, doing everything I could to close the wound, to heal him. Gushes of blood kept oozing from the horrible wound in his chest, was it his heart? Had it been cut? How was it even still beating?

He smiled at me, showing bloody teeth. "Its just... a scratch."

Oh the insufferable prat, he needs to keep his strength not waste it on words. "Hush Harry, I love you, its going to be okay, you hear me? Its going to be fine." I placed my hand over the wounds and poured more magic into the wound directly, it wasn't closing and I didn't know why, it should have closed!

"I'm so tired..." his words were slurred now, and his eyes were only open a crack. I wanted to shake him, to yell at him to stay awake but I didn't dare, I couldn't aggravate the wound anymore than I already had. Why wouldn't it heal!? The blasted Wild, was always so taxing on us when we had to use it, and neither of us had been wounded like this before, not with that power running through us. He'd been standing there with a gaping hole in his chest for several minutes, that coupled with the trauma of using that kind of altering magic, that wildness that drained us more than anything else.

"The tank is... empty Mione. It will take more... than you have... I'm sorry... Love you." HIs eyes closed and and I screamed. HIs heart continued to beat, kept pumping more blood, how did he have any left?

I screamed then, my voice cracked and broke as honey colored light infused my being. and I began anew. Bolts of magic were pumped directly into him, with anyone else, this would have killed them, but not my Harry, I couldn't have hurt him if I tried. We'd been together for so long, friends lovers and companions. My magic believed he was a part of me, and he was. We had a connection deeper than any other magicals had ever had before. We were one in so many ways, I wouldn't lose him. I couldn't.

The blood was slowing now, I didn't know if it was because I had finally started to do something... or if he was running out. I poured more of myself into him, used more magic in this one act of trying to heal than I ever had before. Slowly the bloody flow stopped, and I felt his heart beat a little stronger. But now my own power was running dry. I'd used enough to power several cities for weeks in the course of a minute, and I felt unconsciousness swimming at the edges of my mind and vision. I shook myself, trying to stay awake, if my power fled now, that would be it, he would die, and I'd never be able to live.

I felt a hand on my back, and then three more. "Take ours, take all you need... take all of it if you have to." I felt an influx, clumsy at first from them, and then a gush of strength as they got the hang of the process. The Wild within me roared back to life. I couldn't have cared less in that moment if I killed them all to save him, no matter how I'd feel once the Wild left me. I latched onto those streams of power, and pulled.

I distantly heard Jean gasp and someone fell to their knees, but they kept the connection open. I took nothing for myself, merely directed all that power and force, quite a lot coming from four young and strong magic users, and directed it toward my love. Harry's body pulsed and shook violently for a moment, something like the sound of a thunder clap entered the air. I pulled one final time, and with a scream I forced what power they had left, everything but a sliver to keep them conscious, into my husband of more than two centuries.

And that was it, I had no more power to give, and they had no more to pull from. Those four had more strength than they realized, and I had just pulled more out of them than I ever thought I'd manage, somehow without killing them. My vision darkened and I grew dizzy, the honey colored light that surrounded me snapped off in a blink and I nearly collapsed at the suddenness of it. I blinked once, twice, three times and felt the world falling away. Had I done it? Would he live? I didn't know, but my mind couldn't keep my body awake any longer. I began to fall over sideways, my face would crash into the glass... but at the last moment, I felt a pair of strong arms, catch me ever so gently.

3.

Two Years Later

I was having the dream again. They'd begun a week of so ago, and hadn't stopped since. Every night the same, every night, a nightmare, with a glimmer of hope buried within. The dream began almost the same every time, but something was different this time, i could finally understand. I'd tried casting spells in this dream, but I wasn't truly there, so I knew they wouldn't work, but the others, the ones that sent me the dream, they'd finally figured out how to make me understand.

I was lying on a table, it wasn't cold, or if it were I couldn't feel it, and when I opened my eyes there was one of the oddest faces I'd ever seen staring back up at me. An oval shaped head, nearly like a football, with six eyes arranged in two rows. Four ears, two pointing up, and two hanging low, with wide purple lips and no visible nose to see. The being was small, perhaps four feet tall all told, and it was wearing some strange reflective suit, something akin to a lab suit made of silver. A visor sat on a head with thinning hair. The little being gave its head a flick and the visor came down to cover those multicolored eyes. I could see light shining out from around the edge before a seven fingered hand came up to push it closer to the face. The creature grinned then, causing its face to take on one of the friendliest looks I'd ever seen. It turned away and spoke to someone I couldn't see.

"Its working properly this time! The sync is complete, he should be able to understand us now." Another one of the odd little creatures came into my view and looked over, this one was very similar in appearance, slightly taller but not by much. Tentacles drooped off the back of there heads, little prehensile things that twitched and shivered, I could see more coming from their back. A few of those tentacles reached out to a panel of some kind behind one of them and began to type rapidly and twist several knobs.

"This is insane, we've never been able to link to someone so face away, how is the avatar handling it?"

the first one frowned slightly and reached up to tap at what looked like the side of my head from his perspective. My vision blinked a bit, like looking out of an old TV screen that had been thumped to get a better picture. "Terrible, the anatomy is so strange compared to ours, how do they manage with only arms and legs? No matter, its working well enough for a transfer." He looked down at me and cleared his throat. "Hello! Sorry to bring you here like this, but my name is Doctor Barness, and we need your help!"

I blinked and tried to set up but couldn't. Such a strange dream. I opened my mouth, and I found I could, even though I couldn't feel it. "How can I help you?" My voice was not my own, it was metallic and strange.

He clapped excitedly and stepped back before sliding a screen over that was attached to a small arm leading out of my vision. He tapped a few buttons with a head tentacle and it flared to life, showing a model of a solar system, Faye's solar system.

"This is your home, correct?" My lips twitched in amusement, I might as well play along.

"It is now, but not my planet of origin. We've lived there for several years now." He nodded sagely and grinned, showing off a set of flat, rounded teeth.

"Good, good! You know of space travel then, we suspected, but weren't sure. Now, we are... here." His tentacles tapped at a few more buttons I couldn't see and the image zoomed out and stretched. I could still see Faye, but it was distant and tiny now. The image focused in on a smaller planet, a moon really, circling around a gas giant with double rings. Their system had a single star, a bit bigger than Sol. The planet was extremely green With large, elongated land locked seas. From this view, rather far away and centered in space, I couldn't see anything that resembled mountains. "This is our home, Ievlos. It sits about twelve light years away from your own home." I nodded at that, close, astronomically speaking, but still an unfathomable distance. We'd managed to build a ship capable of traveling at a percentage of light speed, and it still took two centuries to reach Faye. Their planet was about seventy trillion miles away from us.

"Doctor, we need to speed this up if we're going to perform a data dump. I've finished analyzing the brain, it should be able to withstand the trauma with minimal side effects." The doctor in question humphed to himself and narrowed his eyes at who I assumed was his assistant.

"We can't rush this, I haven't properly explained anything yet."

"Yes doctor, but the distance is causing issues and we might not be able hold on for much longer." The doctor in question sighed and seemed to mutter something to himself before turning back to me.

"I'm sorry to dump this all on you at once my boy, but I'm afraid we really do need your help."

He tapped a few more buttons out of sight and brought up another picture, this one familiar and horrific. I glared at the image, I wonder how that translated to them.

I looked back to this tiny creature and softened my face, if I had a face in this strange dream. "I know all about that, and I'm so sorry."

It was the doctor's time to look sorrowful. "Yes, this entered our system some time ago. I understand that you haven't lived on Faye for long, but Ievlos is our home, and we managed to colonize most of the solar system some time ago, we even have outposts and colonies in neighboring systems. This one crash landed on our neighbor planet some months ago, and the destruction has been... devastating." I was looking at an image of that abomination from the sky, the magicless pod that fed on and manipulated the dead. I'd been so torn about chasing after it for such a long time now, but it had taken so long to get things settled on Faye, by the time I had the chance, I feared I'd never catch it, or have anyway of following. We talked it over many times by now, but without a more efficient ship… it would have been a wild goose chase.

The doctor continued speaking then. "We are a peaceful people, we cast aside war in our species infancy, to the point it is a foreign concept to us. We have devised weapons since it arrived, but well, we are not made, physically or mentally to combat such an evil thing. We did mange to capture one though. That's how we found out about you." I frowned, the seeds had been launched months after I killed the one inhabiting the ship, how could that have helped?"

"Apparently the... mother seed, for lack of a better term, could transmit messages long distance to the... children. They were warned about you. We were able to pull this data from the one we captured. We saw how you defeated your own easily enough, and well, we're running out of options. this creature has spread to most of our solar system now, and we are afraid, and mostly hiding. There is little we've been able to do to combat it."

I found the idea of a pacifist species strange, and yet somehow comforting. It was nice to know that not everything grew to be war like and destructive. I didn't know if this was a dream or not anymore, but I was willing to help.

"What can I do to help? I'm afraid I'm a rather far distance away, even if my ship was in a state to travel, it would take around a quarter of a century to get there. I'm afraid that simply isn't practical, I doubt you could hold it off that long."

The little doctor looked impressed at that. "We've encountered few intelligent species capable of space travel, and even fewer that can go so fast! We've come to see ourselves as sort of oddballs in that regard. Curiosity is our defining trait, you see. and its that curiosity that pushed us technologically."

"What of the magic of your world? How do you all use it?" He frowned at that and looked confused before he turned to his assistant.

"Is the translation tech failing? I didn't understand that last bit dear."

His assistant checked several things before shaking her head. "No, everything is working correctly doctor."

He turned back to me and smiled sheepishly. "I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about my boy. But no matter. With your consent, I will.. send you information that will allow you to reach us much faster than a quarter century. The biggest issue will be finding a power source capable of it. If you can do that, well, you can get here within a week of it being built." I blinked, that was insane.

"How does that work, do you warp time and space?" He clapped excitedly again.

"Not exactly, but we do fold it. Now, may I send you the information? Will you help us?"

I didn't have to think about it long, this thing needed to be destroyed, and perhaps with the new tech... I could go after more than just this seed. Hermione would go with me, wouldn't she? The thought was a silly one to ask, she'd go, just to meet this excitable little fellow.

"I will do everything in my power to help you," I thought of the ward cubes we used to power our own ship, with all the magic buzzing around Faye we could make a massive one and have it charged in no time, material might be a problem, but I'm sure we could cannibalize something to make it work. "I believe I have a sufficient power source easy enough to obtain. Just let me know what I need to build."

He cheered. I liked this guy already. "I shall send you the data at once! Mind you, and once again I'm so very sorry, but this will likely hurt. and once the transfer is complete, you'll be disconnected. We will check back in on you in a few days time if we can. I'm afraid we'll have to ration power after this though, we are rather deep below the surface to escape... the seed beasts." I nodded in understanding, and braced myself as best I could. "Oh! I completely forgot to ask, but what is your name, if you don't mind me knowing?"

I smiled at him. "Harry, my name is Harry."

He clapped again. and started hitting many buttons on a distant panel rapidly with back tentacles while staring intently at a screen before him. He looked down at me one last time. "Thank you Harry, and I wish you luck! Now hold on, this is going to sting." With a few final pushes, the room grew painfully bright, and a burning headache like a line drawn with fire carved into my brain filled me head.

The world before me faded, as I was flooded with information. millions of new neural connections formed in my mind instantly as the data seemed to fill me up to the brim and then spill over. I gasped at the pain, and the world went black.

4.

I sat bolt upright in bed, still gasping in pain. I groaned and reached up to rub at my temples. Hermione sat up quickly and leaned against me in concern. "Harry, what wrong, are you alright?"

I chuckled and pulled her into a one armed hug as my eyes opened, schematics and data flying past my eyes at a break neck speed. I smiled at her. "Mione, lets get some coffee brewing."

She blinked owlishly at me, half asleep again now that I seemed okay. "Its really early still Harry."

I nodded. "It is, we're about to have a busy day, remember those weird dreams I've been having lately?" She nodded, the concern coming back.

I turned to her and grinned. "We've got a portable worm hole to build, and an alien civilization to save."

THEND

A/N:

Well... there you have it. all done! I hope this tale has been satisfying for those of you that stuck with it until the end. As you can see, I've got plans for these guys. Now as I've said before, I'm taking a bit of time off fanfiction to work on some original stuff, but I'll be back to writing fan fiction within the next sixty days or so, gives me enough time to rewrite a book I let get monstrously long. It needs to be chopped down some forty thousand words if I ever hope to get it published, and at this point the only way I can really do that is to just rewrite the blasted thing. But after that, I'll be back.

Remember there's a poll up on my profile to decide what I work on next, I can continue this, or there are several more options. Continuing this is sitting at number one so far, but we'll see. I'm leaving the poll up for two more weeks, so go vote!

Thank you all for reading, I will see you all again soon enough,

Harkon


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